When it comes to remembering the dead, you can find the options seem endless. In New Jersey, cremation services providers can offer you the chance to select from a variety of choices. These include memorial gardens, scattering gardens, urns for your home and scattering urns. They may also be knowledgeable on other forms of remembrance. This includes tattoos, artistic creations such as jewelry and glass globes. One artist has even gone so far as to create pencils from the carbon.
All of these are legal means of memorializing your loved one. Cremation services in New Jersey are able to provide you with the chance to learn about the opportunities for remembering and disposing of the deceased's final remain, including a popular one - scattering at sea. Yet, before the ashes or cremains end up in his or her final destination, you need to look any laws governing their disposal. You should talk to those who know about the laws of scattering on the water and other aspects including how it will affect cremation costs in New Jersey.
Scattering the Ashes - On Water
In New Jersey, the chance for scattering ashes on the water is plentiful. To allow the ashes of your loved ones to become one with a body of water is many a person's dream. When it comes to New Jersey cremation services, this is an actual option. The state has both lakes and the ocean. This provides you with a choice of setting the cremains free into salt or fresh water - a perfect solution and one that can be an inexpensive option for those worried about New Jersey cremation costs and funeral costs.
Before you do so, you need to consider the laws governing the practice. In fact, two separate bodies are responsible for the care of oceans alone - the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuary Act of 1972, and State authorities through the Clean Water Act (CWA). The former handles the scattering of ashes at sea; the latter concerns itself with the scattering of ashes into water from docks, beaches and similar places.
Scattering the ashes at sea requires you follow EPA laws. They state:
- The scattering can take place no closer than 3 nautical miles at sea
- The container for the ashes, if used, must be biodegradable in the marine environment
- Flowers and wreathes must also be decomposable
- You or the company needs to notify the EPA within 30 days of the scattering
If you decide to opt for a sea scattering, by hiring a boat in New Jersey, cremation costs will increase. The price will hinge on such things as the cost of transporting yourself and the ashes as well as friends to the site. There may also be paperwork and other additional costs relating to the scattering including a biodegradable scattering urn, several small urns for members of the scattering party and even flowers and/or wreathes.
The cost for cremation services in New Jersey will be less if you decide to scatter the ashes off a dock or from a beach. While this is illegal under the CWA, it generally goes unnoticed by any legal agency if done privately and not by a company. This applies for both salt and fresh water bodies. In particular, if the water is on private property, which is commonly true for inland lakes, ask for permission. When the body falls under the jurisdiction of a state park, be sure to ask permission. A formal permit may be required before you can scatter the ashes accordingly. In most instances, where exactly you can scatter the ashes is stated and specific.
With New Jersey cremation services, you also have another option to include water as part of your means of saying goodbye to the deceased. These are called memorial reefs. This choice will have an effect on overall New Jersey cremation costs.
Memorial Reefs
There are approximately 1800 Memorial Reefs located just off the coasts of Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Some have been in the waters of New Jersey since around 1999 as part of a reef building project.
Unlike scatterings, these "reefs" offer a permanent site for the ashes. These memorials are concrete pods are artificial reefs resembling large beehives. The ashes are not placed within an urn but form a part of the structure. As a result, they are "additives" rather than human remains.
People can choose to visit them, using the co-ordinates provided, or not. They can attend the memorial service if they wish. If they choose to not attend this makes it greener and of course, reduces cremation costs in New Jersey for the purchaser.
Talk to our representatives for information on how scattering can work for you. We can help you look at such aspects as potential places to scatter the ashes, legislating affecting this act and cremation costs in New Jersey. We are always ready 24/7 to help you with questions and concerns.
