http://www.care2.com/greenliving/live-green-die-green-eco-friendly-funerals.html
Live Green, Die Green: Eco-Friendly Funerals
By Melissa Breyer, Senior Editor, Healthy & Green Living
Fifty-six million people die each year, worldwide. What a mess we’d be in if all cultures and religions promoted the “embalmed and buried in a concrete vault” model that is customary in the United States. Over time, a typical ten-acre cemetery is filled with enough coffin wood to construct more than 40 houses, nearly 1,000 tons of casket steel and another twenty thousand tons of concrete. In addition to enough toxic formalin to fill a small backyard swimming pool, not to mention the pesticide and weed killer used to keep the cemetery grounds eternally green.
Green burial is burial that can take place without the use of formaldehyde-based embalming, metal caskets, and concrete burial vaults. It’s essentially the way much of humanity has cared for its dead all the way until the late 19th century. In some instances, green burial can also be used to facilitate ecological restoration and landscape conservation.
At its greenest, natural burial involves the interment of a shrouded or minimally-coffined body in a green setting, be it a natural cemetery or on rural land. It also includes cremation–which consumes significantly fewer resources than the modern funeral–and options that return the resulting ashes to the environment. Among them are scattering ashes at sea and adding ashes to a memorial “reef ball,” a concrete form resembling an igloo which is then dropped into the ocean onto established reef sites, where they serve as aquatic nurseries for fish and other undersea wildlife
Following are a number of frequently asked questions posed to the Green Burial Council–a non-profit organization working to make burial more sustainable, economically viable, and meaningful:
How can green burial bring about restoration or conservation?
The Green Burial Council (GBC) requires that its certified conservation burial grounds engage in both restoration planning and stewardship. Certified Natural Burial Grounds are required to have in place a deed restriction to ensure that a green cemetery now remains one in the future. GBC Conservation Burial Grounds are required to have a conservation easement held by an established land trust. The key to success we believe is in requiring transparency and accountability, and a system of checks and balances.
What’s wrong with embalming?
The Council doesn’t think any end-of-life ritual or disposition option is “wrong.” We only want to ensure that services/products are available to people who wish to minimize their environmental impact. The primary environmental issue with embalming fluid is that contains formaldehyde; a “probable” carcinogen according to the US Environmental Protection Agency and a known carcinogen according to the World Health Organization. Embalming creates health risks for workers and it’s associated with several diseases such including nasal cancer and leukemia. In very few circumstances is embalming actually required by law, and a “funeral with a viewing” is not one of them. GBC approved funeral directors make available refrigeration and/or dry ice as an alternative to embalming.
What are the environmental issues associated with vaults?
Originally developed to deter grave robbers in the late 19th century, vaults are required today by many cemeteries in order to help prevent the ground from sinking and markers from moving. There are no state or federal laws requiring the use of a vault, though cemeteries are allowed to have policies that do. Some conventional cemeteries now offer consumers the option of paying additional amounts of money in an endowment care funds to handle potential maintenance associated with vaultless burial. Many however, offer vaultless burial at no additional charge. While the concrete and metal in vaults are considered “natural” to some, the manufacturing and transporting of vaults utilizes a tremendous amount of energy and contribute to 1.6 tons of reinforced concrete being produced. Vaults are not required in GBC approved Hybrid Burial Grounds and prohibited in Council certified Conservation and Natural Burial Grounds.
Is cremation an eco-friendly form of disposition?
Cremation uses far fewer resources than almost any other disposition option but it also has an environmental impact and “carbon footprint.” Cremation burns fossil fuel and some older cremation facilities can use significantly more energy compared to newer ones. Mercury is also emitted when a person with dental amalgam fillings is cremated, though just how much is widely debated. The GBC has recently begun to certify cremation disposition programs that create or protect habitat. We will also be requiring that mercury pollution be mitigated by our approved cremation facilities by 2010 when cost-effective technologies are expected to be available.
What is a home funeral and how does it differ from a home burial?
Home funerals allow for families to care for a decedent, and all aspects of a funeral, at home, and were quite common up in the US until the mid-20th century. A family can facilitate a home funeral on their own; with the assistance of a home funeral practitioner; or in conjunction with a licensed funeral director. Some states require the latter. Home burial is an alternative to burial in a cemetery. It’s allowed for in most parts of the country, but usually requires some minimum number of acreage. Home burial has historically been quite common in rural areas.
Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Nebraska, New York all have restrictions on your ability to care for your dead. Each state has its own regulations governing this matter. For most states, everything from transportation to final disposition is within your power.
For more information:
Green Burial Council
Funeral Consumers Alliance
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34 comments
add your comment »To Marie and Chana, thank you for the information on the FCA-what a wonderful organization. I have enjoyed reading every comment and have learned a lot from several. What a wonderful forum. We never know when we will need to have our arrangements in order and this gives us many alternatives to choose from. Thanks to all for their comments and input!
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I can understand your distress, Margaret, that your brother didn't respect your mother's wishes, but I have to say that I feel that funerals are - and should be - for the living. They're all about our coming to term with the loss and helping us deal with our grief.
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Very interesting and timely article. Thanks! All those fancy schmancy arrangemanets and services are for the living, not for the dead.
My beloved mother passed away 2 weeks ago. She wanted a simple cremation (no viewing, no service) and have her ashes scattered in the sea so she could be free to "travel". My brother went against that wish and ended up putting her ashes in an urn, put in a niche and then sealed - all for the off chance that his children/grandchildren might, perhaps visit the spot to pay their respect. Yes, there was a huge fight...at least he didn't hold a memorial at the Staples Center.
So, my suggestion is that you should write down your burial wish - in no uncertain terms, and give the copies to several people for safekeeping. Better yet, if you can afford it now, pre-arrange and pre-pay for the services. Often times (but not always) funeral arrangers work on the raw emotions of the grieving. I also want a simple cremation and ashes in the (Caribbean) sea. I personally love to swim and I'd rather be reef food than worm food ;-( Nothing wrong with shrouded burial into the ground to nourish the Earth though.
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Funeral Consumers Alliance is a wonderful organization. Their web site: http://www.funerals.org/ is a resource I direct hospice patients to all the time. Links to all sorts of useful sites, including many ways to keep costs down.
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Have you heard of a non-profit volunteer group called "Funeral Consumers Alliance" which has a national network? FCA National Office: 800-765-0107 or check online. Lots of information, books, etc., very reasonable prices. My spouse passed in 2002, was cremated through our local group - FCA of So. Arizona - and the total cost was $550 (in 2002; it's gone up a bit since then) It's a beautiful group. The natl office will help you set up your own local alliance. Info on alternative ways to celebrate life which doesn't cost $$ but gives family & friends ways to show their respect and love.
p.s.: There's a Japanese movie just out called "Departures" which shows a beautiful way to prepare a loved one for cremation. Highly recommend it.
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Wow. So much to think about. Good article and even better comments; thank you for those. I would like a simple funeral that doesn't cost much. I'm actually creeped out by much of what the funeral industry does; embalming, long drawn out "viewings", silk lined coffins and that awful organ music. I'm torn on the idea of cemeteries though as I agree with Renee that they are peaceful and can be comforting to those of us left behind. My fourth granddaughter was born still in May and I know my daughter often goes to the cemetery to be near her precious baby; who is buried in a section reserved for babies.
Thank you for giving me many ideas and things to think about. I want to have the plans made so that whenever the time comes the hard decisions have all been made.
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Pam, I never even thought of the "shark bait" and pieces washing up to shore--good point, I wouldn't want my Grandkids to come running up with a piece of me!!!! Holly, atta girl! I am an old hippy and proud of it. Maybe if more attention had been paid to the environment "way back then" these problems would not have escalated to this point. I wonder sometimes if sitting in the peacefulness of cemeteries, when compared to the lack of space for the living, might be going a bit overboard. But to each his own. I personally choose not to waste the space and like you Lynn, spend the funeral money on a party for the living. not a somber grief-filled event that no body wants to come to anyway!
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I'm surprised no mention was made that the Green Burial Council, in conjunction with Ohio's Wilderness Center and it's nature preserve cemetery, Foxfield Preserve, are holding the first Natural Burial Conference this Sept 10 & 11.
So far, Foxfield is the only nature preserve cemetery operated by a non-profit conservation organization in the U.S. but if the concept takes off like I think it will, land conservation efforts around the country will be helped significantly.
I would much rather pay to be buried in a natural area than in a manicured cemetery, and the idea that funds from these kinds of burials would further allow for the preservation of the natural areas and even contribute to purchasing more land is wonderful.
Imagine being able to bury a loved one in a responsible way, in an area that will be conserved not just for the benefit of those people who are buried and their loved ones, but also for the animals and plants in the area and people who wish to enjoy the outdoors. And don't imagine your conventional cemetery at all, when I last I discussed this with those in the Nature Center field (some time ago) we were discussing the use of very small unobtrusive markers, natural ones (like trees or boulders) or ones that were not even visible, but rather located with GPS units. I love the idea!
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As the population grows and land gets scarce I'm willing to bet cemeteries will be used for building. Just as we've built over Native American burial sites. I'd like to be buried on my property,'naturally' so I can go back to the earth but I doubt it is allowed.
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I wanted to leave my body to science, but medical schools have a whole list of medical conditions where they will NOT take a body. Be sure you contact who you want to leave you body with, and make arrangements, and know what their conditions are.
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