Barbie Hsu's eco-friendly tree burial in Taipei
徐熙媛在台北環保樹葬
| Taipei Mortuary Services Office promotes tree burial for honoring loved ones
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Actress Barbie Hsu's (徐熙媛) funeral included eco-friendly services, and a tree burial has been chosen as her final resting place. According to Taipei Mortuary Services Office, this type of funeral requires the cremated remains to be finely ground and placed near tree roots for minerals in the ash to be incorporated into the soil, per CNA. Two major tree burial areas are located within Taipei’s Fude Cemetery. When an area becomes full, it will enter a two-year maintenance period where phosphate-dissolving bacteria is sprayed each month, with cultured soil to ensure ash decomposition. Taipei Mortuary Services Office said eco-friendly burials allow the deceased to return to the earth naturally. Taipei began trial tree burials in 2003, and it has since completed 64,000 burials, with about 800 applications per month. Science teacher Lee Xing (李行) said when ashes come into contact with acid rain, they may form calcium carbonate, which is insoluble in water. For this reason, the spraying of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria is needed to turn the ashes into nitrogen-containing compounds, which can be absorbed and reused by plants. |
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| Sean Scanlan, Taiwan News, Staff Writer | |
| 2025-02-11 |
