I had to deal with a rather sad subject this week – how do you, in an environmentally friendly way, give your pet their final send off.

Me and my girlfriend Katherine, we’re getting married in May, had a pet Guinea Pig called Bon Bon (because he was so sweet).

However, on Sunday evening (March 7) he passed away – he’d not been eating or drinking very much over the weekend – and while I thought he be ok, I was wrong.

Obviously, at a time like that you’re quite emotional but you’ve got things to sort out and I certainly was not going to put his remains out with the rubbish for landfill.

But, he’s also not the sort of thing my local recycling would collect.

Now we live in inner London (Blackheath in Greenwich if you’re interested) and don’t have a garden so the most environmentally friendly way of burying him and allowing nature to take its course is not an option, sadly.

So, I looked on the internet and while I would say I’m against the policy of incineration I found a few pointers saying a ‘cremation’ was the greenest way.

From www.richardlamb.com : “Because cremation does not require the use of embalming chemicals as burial often does, some consider it a greener choice.”

Hmmm the emissions from it all are probably worse than the chemical ones – but I genuinely don’t know – and I couldn’t find a better alternative.

I also paid what seems like an extortionate amount to have him done on his own as I was won over by the amount of links claiming – probably falsely – that they go in with hazardous/hospital waste.  

So if someone else can please let me know for future reference I’d really appreciate it.

Luke