All Connecticut residents, regardless of political affiliation, have one thing in common: death.

When the fateful day comes (waaaay in the distant future, hopefully), some choose 'green' burials and cremation options that don't hurt the environment.

"It's a pretty popular concept," says Katie S. Gagnon, a board member at the Connecticut Green Burial Grounds. "Really, it's just for there to be an option for people like me who don't want to be embalmed, who don't want to go into an exotic hardwood casket."

The Green Burial Council, a national organization, estimates that 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluids, 64,500 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete, 17,000 tons of copper and bronze, and 20 million feet of wood enter the ground in the U.S. every year.

Greenwich resident Tessa Pascarella, who passed away in 2018, opted for a green burial on her family's 1000-acre forest in Sherman. It took more than a year, but it finally happened.

"It's always fun to see the way humanity grows more human, or more civilized, from generation to generation," says Tessa's son, Aldo Pascarella, a Greenwich lawyer, "and I see this green burial movement as one such iteration."

Gagnon, Pascarella and Courant reporter Greg Hladky dig deep into green burials on the latest Capitol Watch podcast.