Without fail, most casket manufacturers provide a line of caskets specially built for cremation. However, you may not find one you like for purposes of a traditional funeral service or viewing.

In this case, one option is a cardboard box that fits inside a wooden shell designed to look like a traditional casket. After the funeral service, the interior box is removed from the shell before cremation. This allows the more expensive wooden shell to be reused.

Funeral homes also offer rental caskets, which are traditional caskets used only for the duration of the services. After the services, the body is transferred to another container for cremation. Sometimes the liner in which the body has been placed (usually a fabric-covered cardboard, casket-shaped container) is a suitable container for cremation. Each time a rental casket is employed, a new liner is used. Very often, the family of the deceased has options in picking the fabric for the removable liner, thereby giving the rented casket a more personalized look.

• An unfinished hardwood box of a wood that is easily combustible.

For those who choose a direct cremation without a viewing or other ceremony where the body is present, the funeral provider must offer an inexpensive unfinished wood box or alternative container, a non-metal enclosure - pressboard, cardboard or canvas—that is cremated with the body.

• The liner from a rented casket

If your family is planning a funeral service or visitation prior to the cremation, your best option is most likely to rent a casket from the funeral home and use the removable liner as the container for the cremation. However, your funeral director can and must show you a line of caskets that you can purchase which are suitable for cremation.

• A cardboard container

Under the Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule, funeral executives who offer direct cremations: may not tell you that state or local law necessitates a casket for direct cremations. Additionally, they must disclose in writing the fact that you have a right to purchase an unfinished wood box or a substitute container for a direct cremation. And, they must make an unfinished wood box or other alternative container obtainable for direct cremations.

Hal Stevens owns the CemeterySpot family of websites that provide products, services and resource directories related to end of life topics. Services include the CemeterySpot FREE Online Memorial Listing Service and the CemeterySpot FREE Cemetery Property Listing Service.

Hal is also the author of several critically acclaimed eBooks specifically written to help people deal with end of life issues. His eBooks include topics such as: cremation, writing and delivering a eulogy, eco-friendly green funerals, funeral planning, organ donation, and buying and selling cemetery plots.

To find out more about these free services and resources, to learn more about his books, and to get a free gift, visit http://www.cemeteryspot.com.