More are choosing 'ecoburials'

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Cynthia Hubert

McClatchy Newspapers

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Hannah Wit once told her longtime boyfriend what should happen to her body after her death.

No toxic embalming fluid for preservation, she insisted. No fancy metal casket lined in satin. No concrete vault around her grave. No elaborate marker. Wit just wanted to disappear.

"I want to be eaten by the worms," she said.

"You can't do that," Doug Sovern remembers telling Wit.

After she died this year at age 42, Sovern, a radio reporter who lives in Oakland, Calif., did some research and was surprised to find he could honor Wit's unusual wish.

He learned he could commission a "green" burial, leaving behind nothing more than biodegradable compost to fuel plant life.

Though they are popular in the United Kingdom and other countries, green burials are just beginning to attract attention in the United States.

For centuries, a variety of cultures have chosen to bury their dead in shrouds or wooden boxes, without first infusing bodies with chemicals. But the green burial movement has taken the practice to a new level. Some cemeteries forbid the use of formaldehyde, concrete, metal or any other material not completely biodegradable.

In these burial grounds, graves are marked only with a plant or a stone natural to the area. Visitors use global positioning equipment to find resting places of their loved ones.

Only five cemeteries in the United States are certified as strictly green by a council that oversees their activities. Others, including the one in Marin County, Calif., where Wit is buried, have special sections set aside for green burials. Most other cemeteries will forgo chemical preservatives or metal caskets if families request it, but require concrete vaults to stabilize the ground where bodies are buried.

Advocates argue that a green approach to burial is environmentally friendly, spiritually uplifting and often less costly than the conventional American way of laying people to rest.

Some conservation groups see green burials as a way to preserve public land that otherwise might be devoured by development.

"Before the better dying through chemistry' era was born, this was the way most of humanity cared for its dead," said Joe Sehee, founder and executive director of the Green Burial Council, a nonprofit group leading the charge for biodegradable burials. "It's a way to honor the dead and heal the living in an environmentally responsible manner."

Sehee's group believes metal caskets and reinforced concrete vaults are wasteful and unnecessary, and that formaldehyde used for embalming contributes to underground water pollution. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers formaldehyde toxic to humans and other species, but the agency has no data on its potential for polluting water.

Cremations, Sehee noted, send potentially toxic mercury and other chemicals into the air from the burning of dental fillings. The EPA estimates that crematoriums emit about 320 pounds of mercury each year, a tiny share of the tons of the chemical pumped into the atmosphere by other industrial sources.

Conventional funeral directors challenge the notion that their methods are environmentally damaging. Funeral homes and cemeteries are required to abide by environmental laws, they point out. Moreover, they argue, many people want loved ones embalmed so that they are suitable for viewing before burial, and wish to honor them with fancy caskets and gravestones.

"I look at our cemetery, and to me it's a peaceful place where people can visit a grave site, bring flowers, have picnics," said Shaun Myers, a Utah funeral director and member of the National Funeral Directors Association's executive board. "To me it's a thing of beauty, and I don't see any documentation that supports the claim that cemeteries are places of contamination."

Most funeral directors are happy to conduct "direct burials," without embalming or elaborate caskets, if families request them, Myers said.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/green/articl...nburial-ON.html

[almaty 19]

hmmm.. i had not heard of this..interesting

[Jasman0717 9]

I still think I will stick with being burnt

[Cassie 8]

I have heard about this before, and I am extremely interested in it. I will look into that or cremation, for sure.

[MissStacey 1]

I read about this a few months ago- very interesting.

[Jamie76 0]

put me in a freezer bag and toss me in the freezer please.

[jundp 191]

I read about this a few months ago- very interesting.

Yeah, but don't try it in NOLA, Stacey

I'm thankful for the tombs in Lafayette Cemetery that held up (and held my family's remains inside) during Katrina! When my grandmother died, we found a manuscript in her attic written by her grandfather about the cholera epidemic that led to tombs being above-ground there.

[Mags 112]

Cremation is one of the largest contributors to pollution at the moment, simply because more and more people are choosing it as a method over burial. Burial itself has its ecological drawbacks. If you are buried after being embalmed, eventually the embalming fluid will leach into the groundwater system and harm it. This takes years, of course, but think how many bodies are in the ground?

Ecoburials are growing because, imo, they are an excellent idea. The place in SC is actually set up as a forest walk, so you walk through the trees to pay your respects. I can't think of anything nicer. You decompose into the ground, returning to the earth nutrients and food for flora and fauna. Perfect.

Edited October 18, 2007 by Mags

[Nessa 23]

I think it's an absurd the amount of money people waste burying or cremating dead people. The body is dead, dig a hole, throw some sand in it and that's it!

[Sister Fracas 5]

My husband and I will be in the UK most likely when we "go" and this is the way we want to be buried. There are some lovely places in the UK to have an eco-burial. Hope the US does catch on with this quite a bit more.

[MissStacey 1]

I read about this a few months ago- very interesting.

Yeah, but don't try it in NOLA, Stacey

I'm thankful for the tombs in Lafayette Cemetery that held up (and held my family's remains inside) during Katrina! When my grandmother died, we found a manuscript in her attic written by her grandfather about the cholera epidemic that led to tombs being above-ground there.

I could request to be thrown in the swamps and let the alligators have a good snack

I haven't been to Lafayette Cemetery yet- I want to bring the chalk and visit Marie Laveau's grave.

[Sprailenes 47]

I'm going to donate my body to science.

[MissStacey 1]

I found the article that I had first read:

http://www.seemagazine.com/Issues/2007/0524/cover.htm

[Alhamdulillah 0]

I found the article that I had first read:

http://www.seemagazine.com/Issues/2007/0524/cover.htm

That seems a bit drastic.

This is the way muslims are buried.... washed, wrapped in a cloth and laid in the ground... no ebalming, no boxes and no burning. There are special cemetaries in the US for this.

[DeadPoolX 9]

In Judaism, we're only allowed to use wooden coffins. These are biodegradable. So eventually, they break down and are destroyed by the Earth, as is the body inside it.

The reason I bring this up is because I've actually heard of people using plastic coffins. I've never seen that, so I can't confirm. However, that not only seems bad (ecologically-speaking), but rather tacky. I know when I die, I'd rather not be buried in a large chunk of plastic.