What exactly is a “Green Burial” ?
January 23rd, 2009
You may have seen an article or heard something on the news regarding Green Burials. This is a fairly new concept but in many ways is a return to funeral customs from many years ago. Green burials are simplified services where the deceased is not embalmed but may still allow for viewing by the family. The burial would be with a casket made of wood or fiberboard that is designed to disintegrate in the ground, and there is no burial vault or outer container used. Most perpetual care cemeteries do not allow this type of burial and currently there are not many cemeteries that do allow this. It would be possible in a family cemetery to have a green burial and at Andrews Mortuary we can certainly work with anyone who might choose this option. Our goal as always is to provide the most meaningful type of service for each family and to honor the wishes of the deceased. Green Burial is not for everyone but for those who may choose it we can certainly help in putting the arrangments together. For more information about Green Burials, see the Green Burial Council
Hi there,
I’m so glad you’ve posted this note! I’ve added your cemetery and mortuary to our lists of natural burial and funeral service providers at http://www.beatree.com and http://www.naturalburialcompany.com
For more information on what a natural funeral, a natural burial, and sustainable cemetery management are, you can read an online article I wrote for the Funeral Business Advisor at:
http://www.fmm-media.com/docs/bealedjanfeb09.pdf
It might please you to learn that there are hundreds - if not thousands - of cemeteries across North America that already offer some version of vault-free burial.
“Natural” is how it was done for centuries, before the 1960’s. This is how it is done, even today, almost everywhere in the world except the USA - UK cemeteries do not require vaults, European cemeteries do not require vaults - there is no real health and safety purpose for the concrete vault.
For more information on the natural burial movement, your blog readers can find articles at the Alternative Funeral Monitor :
http://www.alternativefuneral monitor.com
or they can read parts of an online book excerpt at http://www.beatree.com
You folks at Andrews exemplify exactly the type of funeral service provider that we maintain is out there across North America - you are compassionate and service oriented, and you want to supply what the family wants, not what an increasingly narrow group of companies want to sell them.
Thanks for keeping a blog and sharing your thoughts! And THANK YOU for leading the way for change…
in trees,
Cynthia Beal
cabeal@beatree.com
Natural Burial Company -
…serving a more natural end…
Natural Burial Around the World
The modern concept of natural burial began in the UK in 1993 and has since spread across the globe. According the Centre for Natural Burial, http://naturalburial.coop there are now several hundred natural burial grounds in the United Kingdom and half a dozen sites across the USA, with others planned in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and even China.
A natural burial allows you to use your funeral as a conservation tool to create, restore and protect urban green spaces.
The Centre for Natural Burial provides comprehensive resources supporting the development of natural burial and detailed information about natural burial sites around the world. With the Natural Burial Co-operative newsletter you can stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the rapidly growing trend of natural burial including, announcements of new and proposed natural burial sites, book reviews, interviews, stories and feature articles.
The Centre for Natural Burial
In fact, there is little new about the green burial movement, basically a return to tradition, which apparently knew better….
But a difficulty remains in that we are now almost 7 billion on this planet, and what worked perfectly for several hundred million may not be applicable for this enormous number, particularly if we want perpetual cemeteries. There will simply be a space problem.
Such large numbers can only be dealt with by cremation or by grave plot recycling, as Europeans are already forced to accept. But cremation has a higher carbon footprint than green burial and it is prohibited by many traditions. And plot recycling after 20 or 30 years makes a mockery of the concept of eternal rest.
Hence, although we are on the right track with the elimination of ground pollutants in burial, we have yet to solve the space needs and grave perpetuity questions. Above all, if we wish to return to truly traditional ways, we must find a way to ensure the graves of our families rest undisturbed in perpetuity.
Remarkable question
And very interesting inforgation you can find here
See you!
gunherfieldu
[...] take a number of years for us to catch-up to the UK as they have a running start on this ‘new’ green burial movement with hundreds of natural cemeteries. Here we only have about a dozen or so natural [...]