this assumes everyone is planning to be scattered,
rather than buried. It is often difficult to get
a simple pine box and burial without formaldehyde,
other pickling substances and chemicals...it the
old, simple way available any where these days?
i believe it was Jessica Mitford who wroet American Way
of Death, exposing some of the foibles of the
funeral, and mortuary "industry" in 1963
-here is the sequel "revisited"
http://dir.salon.com/books/sneaks/1998/07/29sneaks.html