LI company goes green with urn for burial at sea
Ralph DelGatto, owner of Sea Urn Ltd., shows the urns his company offers for burial at sea. The urn is biodegradable and ends the issue of scattering ashes in a wind. (April 2010)
Here's the latest from the funeral industry: You can be environmentally friendly even after you shed this mortal coil.
A Port Jefferson Station-based company has designed and sells a 13-inch-tall, 8-inch-wide urn that comes in different colors, is biodegradable and ends worries about "blowback" from high winds and rough water when cremation ashes are spread over the seas.
"This product, when introduced to the environment, is harmless," said Ralph DelGatto, owner of Sea Urn Ltd. "People are increasingly choosing scattering [their ashes] because it's environmentally friendly. They don't want [their bodies] to take up space in the earth." The urns dissolve in water or break down in soil.
DelGatto, who has been in the death business all his life -- he was and still is a monument salesman -- said his company has sold at least 300 of the urns since last year. That's when DelGatto acquired the company from a previous owner. The urns are sold to funeral homes for about $195.
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