Each year American funerals consume 30 million board feet of casket wood, 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults, 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid, and thousands of acres of land.
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Dear EarthTalk: 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.
And 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; Greensprings Natural Cemetery, www.naturalburial.org; Great Burial Reef, www.greatburialreef.com; Eternal Reefs, www.eternalreefs.com.
GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.
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16 Comments
Add CommentIt would appear to me that the time has come for Soylent Green to become a reality. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust and the deceased to the breakfast table as delicious reprocessed protein food products. Or, at the very least, pet food.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYay, Sci Am. Good article. I hope you'll run a different version of this every 6 months. Give us active links to the Green Burial Council and others. Our dead bodies are just old suits. Update us on science and medicine's use for 'old suits'.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow about freeze-dried, pulverized, and fed to chickens or farm-raised fish?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with the spirit of this article but not the details. Yes, a wicker casket is biodegradable, but so is a conventional wood casket. As to tropical hardwoods, there is an argument that having demand (including caskets) for tropical hardwoods gives incentives to KEEP the rain forests, whereas the biggest threat is not cutting trees for use, it is wholesale burning of forests to raise cattle.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf we absolutely have to bury people, the whole idea of caskets is nothing but wasteful. The construction of caskets creating demand for tropical hardwoods as a protective strategy for rainforests? Wha...?? There are 6+ BILLION of us, and we're all biodegradable. Preservation of dead bodies is a concept that has long outlived it's .... well, it was never actually useful... we need to stop it. If you insist on burial it should be au natural, just as nature intended, returned to the biomass from whence... Otherwise there are potential medical uses for bodies, absolutely freeze-dried and used as food FOR food and you think I was joking about the Soylent Green? Not even. There are a number of useful products that could be derrived from dead us. We are stressing the hell out of our environment, it's time we got practical about this kind of thing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs it possible in any state in the U.S. to be buried on your own property? We live in an un-incorporated part of a county and have 11.6 acres. Not zoned but is in a subdivision consisting of 4 "estates" the smallest of which is 5 acres. This is in Shelby county Alabama.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks...Bo
We are taking this whole thing out of proportion I think this whole thing is foolish, we don't have to be so worked up about enviormental this and that so we have to get an idea to siute all needs hell just stick the body there in the whike goback in thirty years and it is going to be dust.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEco-afterlife is catchy. To think of afterlife while being alive has a meaning as it moderates many a thought process. Whatever burial processes have been adopted have a bearing on human culture. This article sends a message and calls for thinking along new lines so that future may be strewn with less of spills that life has to offer for the posterity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI keep a blog regarding home funerals and green burial. There are a lot of good people out there to help with these alternative choices. http://www.rememberwellnet.wordpress.com. Heather
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHi
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIndian tradition of burning the corpse probably will alter the air quality equation, but planting a tree in place of headstone of western culture is far better abd greener.
dr. thrivikramji
In a simpler time, when the world human population was relatively low, and resources seemed to be "infinite", at least in some cultures, many strange and illogical customs came into being, not the least of which is the "traditional" western funeral, which has more to do with commerce and the church, than anything of real spiritual value.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow, as the human population is exploding exponentially, and the world's resources are being pressured ever more severely, many of these antiquated customs need to be unraveled from current cultural standards. and a more holographic planetary approach be applied in such context.
Unfortunately, there are still many entities in the "professional religion" related industries, of which corporate funeral service providers are still a major force with big lobbying firms representing their interests.
I'm happy to let my remains be recycled back to the earth, but it is this lingering cultural remnant from an earlier time, which has been morphed into a collection of multinational corporate service providers and their religious industries partners and collaborators which may be the real challenge at this juncture.
In a simpler time, when the world human population was relatively low, and resources seemed to be "infinite", at least in some cultures, many strange and illogical customs came into being, not the least of which is the "traditional" western funeral, which has more to do with commerce and the church, than anything of real spiritual value.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow, as the human population is exploding exponentially, and the world's resources are being pressured ever more severely, many of these antiquated customs need to be unraveled from current cultural standards. and a more holographic planetary approach be applied in such context.
Unfortunately, there are still many entities in the "professional religion" related industries, of which corporate funeral service providers are still a major force with big lobbying firms representing their interests.
I'm happy to let my remains be recycled back to the earth, but it is this lingering cultural remnant from an earlier time, which has been morphed into a collection of multinational corporate service providers and their religious industries partners and collaborators which may be the real challenge at this juncture.
If you are interested in bettering the earth and the sea at the same time, please consider Twin Rocks Undersea Memorial. www.twinrocksunderseamemorial.com Cremated remains are permanently interred in the center of a 3/4 ton monument and gently placed on the Pacific Ocean floor. The monuments are handcrafted with niches for sea life and GPS locations are provided. It may not be for everyone, but it is a terrific option for everyone to consider!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you're looking for a really great environmentally positive option on the West Coast, look at Twin Rocks Undersea Memorial. www.twinrocksunderseamemorial.com. Cremated remains are permanently interred in the center of a 3/4 ton monument that is then gently placed on the Pacific Ocean floor. Each monument is handcrafted and has niches for sea life. You better the earth and the sea all at the same time! If you don't like the burial option a monument can be crafted and placed without remains and still benefits sea life and the ocean.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat Article on green burial options! For a world-wide directory of green burial sites and helpful information on eco-friendly funerals, please visit: www.novaterium.com.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Green Burial Council has a great blog too that I recently came across:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://greenburialcouncil.blogspot.com/
Their facebook page is pretty active as well: http://on.fb.me/13jiCvH