����������������������������������������������������������
This Issue: Green Burials • Old North Church Lights Up • Are Aerosols Still Harmful?
DEAR EARTH TALK:
I’ve heard that increasing eco-awareness around the world has
now extended itself to the afterlife, whereby burials can even be
“green.” Is that true?
— Mary Lewis, Duxbury, MA
Modern western-world burial practices are arguably absurd, all
things considered. We pack our dearly departed with synthetic
preservatives and encase them in impenetrable coffins meant to
defy the natural forces of decomposition that have been turning ashes to
ashes and dust to dust for eons. And in the process we give over thousands
of acres of land every year to new cemetery grounds from coast to coast.
According to National Geographic, American funerals are responsible
each year for the felling of 30 million board feet of casket wood (some of
which comes from tropical hardwoods), 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons
of concrete for burial vaults and 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid. Even
cremation is an environmental horror story, with the incineration process
emitting many a noxious substance, including dioxin, hydrochloric acid,
sulfur dioxide and climate-changing carbon dioxide.
But increasing demand for more natural burial practices has spawned
changes in the industry, and dozens of funeral homes and cemeteries across
the country have started to adopt greener ways of operating. Many of these
providers are members of the non-profit Green Burial Council, which works
“to make burial sustainable for the planet, meaningful for the families, and
economically viable for the provider.”
The organization partners with land trusts, park service agencies and
the funeral profession to help consumers get the greenest burial experience
possible. Its network of approved providers is committed to reducing the
industry’s toxins, waste and carbon emissions. Many of the group’s member
cemeteries — you can find a directory on the Green Burial Council’s website
— offer clients the option of burying loved ones in more natural landscapes
uncluttered by headstones and mausoleums. In place of a traditional
headstone, for example, a tree might be planted over the grave. Instead of
conventional wood and steel coffins, clients can bury loved ones in more
biodegradable wicker or cardboard, or in a casket made of wood certified
as sustainably harvested by the nonprofit Forest Stewardship Council.
Advocates of such greener burials say that people take comfort in knowing
their bodies will decompose and become part of the cycle of nature.
Likewise, dry ice is becoming a popular, non-toxic alternative to
embalming. According to Greensprings Natural Cemetery in Newfield, New
York, “No state in the U.S. requires embalming, though some may require it
if burial doesn’t take place within a set amount of time — usually 24 or 48
hours.”
Even the practice of scattering ashes at sea has a new wrinkle. Florida-based Great Burial Reef will place urns with cremated remains within 100
percent natural, pH-balanced concrete artificial reefs placed at the bottom
of the ocean. And Georgia-based Eternal Reefs will mix your ashes with the
cement they use to create “reef balls” — hollow spheres that resemble giant
wiffle balls that are sunk offshore. Loved ones equipped with the GPS coordinates can boat or even dive to visit the site of the remains.
CONTACTS: Green Burial Council, www.greenburialcouncil.org; Forest
Stewardship Council, www.fscus.org.
continued on page 24
American funerals are responsible each
year for the felling of 30 million board feet
of casket wood, 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6
million tons of concrete for burial vaults
and 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid.
