This is a somewhat hard topic to write about. After all isn't being green fundamentally about embracing life? Well, perhaps, but taking a holistic approach to life entails facing and planning for the inevitable. And if we really are serious about living green, we ought to embrace resting green as our final mortal act.
As a fan of the hit series HBO series, Six Feet Under, I became intrigued by one of the show's subplots -- the consolidation and corporatization of the burial industry. For example, according to Wikipedia, the Houston-based Services Corporation International is the "largest provider of funeral, cremation, and cemetery services in the US with over 1200 funeral homes, 358 cemeteries and revenues in excess of $1.7 billion dollars. Reportedly the owner of this merchant of death is a close friend of President Bush.
Green Burials: Low Impact Storage
But let's get off our anti-establishment high horse for the moment, and focus on the environmental aspects of green burials. Last year 22,500 cemeteries across the US buried 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid, 104,272 tons of steel, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, 30 million board feed of wood and 1.6 million tons of concrete. In addition, between 1997 and 2001 over 2.2 million acres were lost to cemetery development according to the Department of Agriculture.
Embalming fluids in particular often include toxic chemicals and additives like formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, phenol, methanol, antibiotics, dyes, anti-endemic chemicals, and disinfectant chemicals. These toxins break down over time and eventually seep into the soil where they can contaminate the local water supplies. In addition, many of these chemicals, such as formaldehyde, are known carcinogens. And even if you can rest easy from the ill health effects of pumping that junk into your vessel, it does seem like a crazy act of senseless vanity to expose the living just so your body can decay at a slower rate.
What are Green Burials?
Quite simply, green burials are a cremation alternative to "traditional" burial practices, and the process is more environmentally friendly and often much cheaper. A common feature is that green burials are non-toxic and don't use carcinogenic embalming fluids. Bodies are buried in simple cardboard caskets, biodegradable pine or cardboard boxes or sometimes in simple cloth. And resting green saves the result of dispensing with fancy caskets, embalming processes and headstones.
Benefits of Green Burials:
- Eco-Friendly. Green burials don't use toxic chemicals that seep into the groundwater.
- Less Expensive. Generally, green burials are less expensive than traditional burials. Caskets from traditional funeral homes cost between $2,000-$10,000 dollars.
- More Personalized. Burying the dead is big business. If the idea of buying into a cookie-cutter burial process seems misaligned with your loved ones values, then consider the alternatives listed here. For example, consider a hand-crafted urn or vessel for your loved one from Funeria.com.
A more exotic option:
Another green burial option is offered by a company called Eternal Reefs (see listing below under Vendors), which creates living memorials that also help to restore fragile reef ecosystems. A person’s cremated remains are mixed with the reef material and then placed in the ocean. This artificial reef attracts marine life and becomes a new reef over time, as well as a “permanent living memorial” to the deceased.
Web Resources:
Standards and Associations
- The Green Burial Council - The Green Burial Council is an independent, nonprofit organization founded to encourage sustainable death care practices, and to use the burial process to restore natural areas.
- Crossings - Crossings is a nonprofit founded to help others carry out home funerals.
- Forest of Memories. Forest of Memories is an organization of volunteers interested in furthering the development of Green Burial Grounds in Canada and the U.S.
- North American Woodland Burial Society. This is a volunteer network who are interested in furthering the practise of natural woodland burials.
Vendors:
(Vendors listed here are for Informational Purposes Only and we do not recommend any particular vendor or service.)
- Providers. Click here for a directory of approved providers of green burials.
- List of Green Burial Ground Providers...
- The Natural Burial Company. This organization is dedicated to green the existing funeral industry by sourcing eco-friendly products and services.
- Eternal Reefs Memorials: Living Environmental Memorials Generations
- Funeria. Organization which promotes individual artist crafted urns and other burial vessels.
- Eco Coffins - Fair Trade Bamboo Coffins
- Organic Flower Bouquets - Did you know traditional cut flowers are preserved with toxin-laden chemicals. Here's an alternative flower vendor that ships organic flowers.
- A Plain Pine Box — custom ordered, plain pine box caskets, based in California. 707-578-7709
Blogs:
- Grist: Green is the New Dead
- TreeHugger.com Profile on Joe Seehee. Joe Seehee is the Director of the Green Burial Counsel
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