How to Be Green in the Afterlife - About Green Burials

Learn about more eco-friendly, meaningful, less expensive and natural alternatives to a traditional graveyard burial.

 :: By Everett Sizemore

Vast expanses of manicured lawns kept alive with wasteful water practices and chemical fertilizers; environmentally harmful and unnatural embalming fluids used to preserve what need not be preserved; overpriced, over-resourced, air tight coffins made from rare woods covered in toxic lacquers... Death these days is bad news for the environment. Although you can't stop the steady march of time, you can ensure that your passing does not take such a toll on the earth by informing your loved ones to provide you with a green burial.

What is a Green Burial?
A “Green” burial will typically ban the use of embalming fluids (or at least require alternatives), vaults, conventional markers, and metal caskets. Green burial sites are often located in meadows and wooded areas that do not require constant maintenance, and the clear-cutting of trees. A "Tree Burial" is one type of green burial in which the body is laid to rest under a newly planted tree.

A green burial has many advantages over traditional Western burials, and they are not just environmental. Green burials are typically less expensive (sometimes less than half the cost of traditional burials), and can be more meaningful and less depressing for family members. Regardless of what you believe about an eternal soul, there is a visceral comfort in knowing that your body will find its way back into the cycle of life on earth, and that your death will not be one more nail in the coffin (pun intended) for the earth that your grandchildren and great grandchildren will continue to inhabit.

Traditional Funerals=Bad for the Environment
It is estimated that the more than 22,500 cemeteries across the Unites States bury 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid every year. Embalming fluids can include chemicals and additives like formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, phenol, methanol, antibiotics, dyes, anti-edemic chemicals, and disinfectant chemicals. These substances eventually find their way into the soil where they can contaminate the local water supplies. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) considers Formaldehyde as a Class 1 Carcinogen. Does it make sense to risk the health of the living to preserve - for just a little while - the bodies of the deceased?

Ashes to Ashes; Dust to Dust
Instead of row upon row of grayish white tombstones, imagine being buried in a meadow of wildflowers, or forest setting. Imagine the comfort your loved ones will feel knowing that they can sit down and remember you while leaning against a tree that was planted above you, and which your everlasting energy feeds. In a sense, the tree is you – living on – as it was your body that provided the nutrients it needed to grow tall and strong. It might be environmental legislation that eventually persuades the Western world to stop using embalming fluids and clear-cutting thousands of acres for the traditional graveyards. But it is the “meaning” behind it all that will open our hearts and our minds to the idea of Green Burials. Although usually paraphrased as “Ashes to ashes; dust to dust”, the following passage from Genesis 3:19 is oft-repeated for good reasons. It is peaceful. It is beautiful. It is natural:

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken:
for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

A Note from the Author - To my family: Let this article stand as my living request for a green "tree burial" in the event of my death.

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Relevant Resources:

Green Burial Council
An independent, nonprofit organization founded to encourage ethical and sustainable practices in the deathcare industry.

Green Burials info
Provides educational materials on green burials and other eco-friendly options.

Forest of Memories
Resources and information supporting green burial in North America

The Natural Burial Company
This company promotes the ecological and sustainable production of natural burial goods to support  environmentally sound funeral and cemetery landscape practices in the 21st Century.

If I Should Die family bereavement advice
Organizing a Green / Woodland / Alternative / DYI Funeral

The Society for Ecological Restoration
An international organization for those interested in biodiversity, ecological processes and structures, regional and historical context, and sustainable cultural practices in restoration.

More Green Living Ideas from Gaiam

Community Voice

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