The Green Burial Guidebook

by Elizabeth Fournier

  TIP: If you want to scatter cremains or bury them, follow the advice of Gail Rubin and Susan Fraser, who wrote Celebrating Life: “Incorporate the ashes lightly into the soil. This way, the ashes may contribute to the environment by providing nutrients for flowers and other plants. This process is known as raking.” Raking allows the cremated remains to commingle as gently as possible with soil, so that plant life isn’t harmed by the highly concentrated pH levels of cremains.

  In other words, while cremation may save ground space, this isn’t an environmentally friendly send-off. Ever wonder why, when human cremains are scattered at sea, most states require this to be done at least three miles off the coastline? Much of the time, when cremains are scattered, they remain visible and do not decompose as readily as once thought. And if the remains haven’t been properly pulverized — processed in a machine to become the same texture as ash or sand — then bone fragments and other small chunks can take quite a while to biodegrade naturally.

  Chapter 2

  GREEN BURIAL PRACTICES

  Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

  Though the topic of death has long been unpleasant in our culture, it is an essential part of life. In many religions and cultures around the world, it is accepted, acknowledged, and even celebrated. Until we learn to deal with death justly and embrace it, we are not living as our paramount selves. This includes taking an authentic look at how we perform our funerals and burials, as well as the ways other cultures handle these rituals.

  This chapter briefly surveys some of these attitudes and alternative green burial practices: those in the past, those in other cultures, and those that may one day reshape our burial customs entirely.

  Traditional Religions and Burial Rituals

  In Genesis 3:19, the Bible says, “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

  Many religions ask us to live modestly, and that principle extends to death. The Catholic Church is becoming a leading religious force reclaiming the ancient, green methods of burial, since it supports the doctrine of resurrection. In addition, Pope Francis has expressed a deep love of nature and a very clear stance on consumerism, stating that all people have a responsibility to care for our Earth.

  The Catholic Church is a large supporter of green burial, which is a method of laying a human body to rest with rebirth in mind. Catholics believe that the body will one day be reunited with its soul for eternal life, and in the words of Maureen McGuinness, family service manager of upstate New York’s Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery, green burial “is a way for families to talk about resurrection.”

  The church supports older traditions. According to Maria Margiotta, “Before the development of chemical embalming, metal-lined caskets, or cement burial vaults, there was simply a shroud and a hole in the ground...a burial tradition that humankind embraced for thousands of years.” Father Charles Morris — who oversees Mount Carmel Cemetery in Wyandotte, Michigan, the first US Catholic cemetery to offer a green burial option — has said, “While some may regard this form of burial as odd, remember that Jesus was laid to rest in a shroud, without embalming or a burial vault. This has been the way Christians have honored their loved ones throughout most of the Church’s two thousand years.”

  The Jewish religion has also always practiced natural burials. Jewish customs align with the steps it takes to carry out a traditional green burial. The body is bathed by members of the faith and wrapped in a natural sheet. A natural wood casket encases the body, and the burial takes place in a short amount of time. According to the website Funeralwise, “Jewish funeral traditions require only the use of a simple casket. This practice serves as affirmation that everyone is equal in death.”

  Traditional Islamic burial practice states that the deceased loved one should be handled and ritually cleansed by a member of the same sex (and specifically in the direction of head to toe). The body is then lovingly laid to resemble a sleeping position, wrapped in perfumed white cloth, and placed directly into the ground in order to become one with the earth.

  Scene of a Native American Burial

  Native American burial, raised platform with body in field, 1910 (Photo credit: Museum of Photographic Arts Collection)

  Native American traditions hold that the natural world is truly revered. Many religious ceremonies are tied to a specific location, and to harm that sacred space would be contrary to Native American beliefs. Because of this, Native American funeral practices have always been eco-friendly.

  I had the honor to serve as funeral director for a Native American burial in the fall of 2011, when we laid to rest Chayton Lootah, also known as Hawk-That-Is-Red. At sunset, Chayton’s father beat out a steady rhythm on his hand drum, which his grandmother had painted with images of the evening sky, while the rest of us completed a rock medicine wheel to honor Chayton’s life. At this point, it was perfectly lovely to step back from my role of director to participate with the others.

  Medicine wheels, which vary in size and mostly are circles of boulders or rocks, were once always built on sacred sites. The sites were often at the intersection of rivers, on mountaintops, or in the center of plains between mountain and rivers. The deceased were placed on a scaffold, along with their possessions. Mounds were built for burial, and bodies weren’t embalmed. Grieving family and friends observed a four-day wake, and food was set out on the scaffolding.

  As we constructed our medicine wheel of stone and branches, we could feel the energy flowing: from the intersections of energy lines related to churches and sacred sites, and from ourselves, as we lay the dearly departed Chayton to rest.

  After the incense was lit, we set off in all directions to find the correct magical twig. Someone finally found a willow branch. It was pliable, so we bent the twig into a circle and bound it closed, then we tied a piece of ribbon from north to south across it and then tied another piece from east to west, dividing the circle of willow into four equal parts. In the middle, where the two ribbons crossed, we placed the prongs of a sheep and a poem Chayton wrote shortly before his death.

  People desiring green burials are often motivated by strong spiritual and/or philosophical beliefs and motivations. A well-known Native American chant translates as, “The Earth is our mother; we must take care of her.” This belief is expressed by many religious faiths and by those of no religious faith. It’s a philosophy and sense of personal responsibility that can motivate anyone to choose natural or green burial.

  TALES FROM THE GRAVE

  If you visit the Philippines, head to the northern city of Sagada to view the amazing cliff of hanging coffins. In this two-thousand-year-old tradition, the elderly carve their own coffins out of hollowed logs (or get help making one). Then, once deceased, the person is placed inside the coffin (it’s a tight fit and sometimes bones need to be broken), and the coffins are hung from the cliff face.

  The tradition itself is dying out, though it is supposedly still practiced. It’s speculated that the hanging coffins were originally used to prevent bodies from being taken by animals or simply because the higher your coffin, the higher your spirit would rise eternally.

  TALES FROM THE GRAVE

  In the high mountains of Tibet, with hard ground and little wood, the tradition of “sky burials” is as natural as it gets: a dead body is left exposed on a flat rock so that vultures, large birds, and animals will eat it in its entirety. This method of disposition remains common in Tibet, since Tibetan Buddhism regards a dead body as an “empty vessel” that doesn’t need preservation. The exact ritual varies (and at times, cost seems to be a factor), but it can involve helper monks who cut the body into pieces, break up bones, and smash any remains that vultures leave behind into a pulp that is left for other birds.

  The Return of Green Cemeteries

  The natural burial movement gained steam in the early 1990s, and green burial grounds soon followed. One of the first was in England. Ken West, who was the bereavement services manager of the Carlisle municipal cemetery, decided to res
erve a part of the cemetery for green burial. At that time, his main concern was the poor British economy. It was a daunting task to try to improve the cemetery without much money, and offering low-budget green burial options proved to be fiscally and environmentally sound.

  In the United States, one of the first natural burial grounds was Ramsey Creek Preserve, which opened in 1996 in western South Carolina. Ramsey Creek Preserve provides burial spaces among thirty-three acres of woodlands and open fields, in which the soothing sound of flowing water is constant.

  Since then, green cemeteries have grown exponentially. In 2012, the United Kingdom had more than 250 green burial sites, and as of 2017, the United States had at least 153 official green cemeteries.

  Now, with the baby boomer generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) slowly starting to check out of the world, we will surely see an increase in green burials and green cemeteries. After all, the baby boomer generation was the first green generation: They organized Earth Day and helped birth the modern environmental movement. This eco-conscious age group will most likely redefine our burial traditions as well, one burial at a time, with each person sharing their own compelling story. Many in this generation embraced the idea of walking gently on this Earth, so it is only natural they will continue that trend in death.

  Death Cafes: A Modern, Secular Movement

  More recently, along with the green burial movement, has been the rise of Death Cafes. These are informal gatherings of people with a curiosity about and a desire to discuss death. There is no agenda for these meetings, other than to discuss death, and hearing and sharing everyone’s perspective is encouraged. To quote the official website: “At a Death Cafe, people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea, and discuss death. Our objective is ‘to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.’”

  Death Cafes began in England in 2011 and have since spread throughout the world. In particular, it has become a very large movement in the Pacific Northwest, where people feel supported to have this resource. These meetings can be hosted by anyone, anywhere. The goal is simply to encourage the general public, and anyone who attends, to feel safe sharing their opinions, asking questions, and hearing other perspectives on death, dying, last rites, funeral practices, and so on. Particularly for anyone who has never had the misfortune (or not!) to attend a funeral, a wake, a burial, or any sort of ceremony for the dead, Death Cafes can be a great way to explore your own thoughts and feelings.

  Green Burials of the Famous

  Celebrities are known for making their burials as big and bright as their Hollywood star. It is exciting to me every time I see a famous person (movie star or not) choose a natural burial. The following are examples of famous people who opted for a green burial:

  In 2016, country singer Joey Feek, from the married country duo Joey + Rory, died from cervical cancer. A space was prepared for her burial on the family farm in Pottsville, Tennessee. As quoted in People magazine, Rory wrote that “a team of mules carried Joey’s simple wooden box in an 1800’s wagon with six of Joey’s favorite ‘cowboys’ by her side.”

  In 2010, British actress Lynn Redgrave’s body was laid to rest in a woven bamboo casket, which was covered with flowers. Many caskets thatched together from sustainable materials are secured with a series of wooden dowels, which fit through small rope loops. Lynn and her eco-casket had their final interment in a rural cemetery in Lithgow, Connecticut. Her brother, Corin, had died just one month prior to Lynn and was buried in a very similar casket.

  According to reports on CNN, television legend Andy Griffith was buried less than five hours after he died, with no embalming and in a natural casket. At the request of his family, his body was lowered into a grave on his family property on Roanoke Island in North Carolina, his home state.

  Civil rights leader and founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW), Cesar Chavez died on April 23, 1993. Fifty thousand mourners made a pilgrimage to watch him pass by when he was brought to Delano, California, for burial. As might be expected, his body was carried in a simple, humble pine box, made by his brother, that was specified by Chavez before he died.

  Funeral Pyres: Crestone End-of-Life Project

  How do you turn cremation into a genuine green burial? By being cremated in an open-air funeral pyre, which is more carbon neutral because it burns wood, not gas or propane. If the body is not embalmed, the process is greener still. This type of cremation remains very rare, and funerary and cremation industry officials I’ve spoken to say they know of only one place in the United States that conducts open-air cremations for people regardless of religion.

  That’s the Crestone Cemetery and Natural Burial Ground in Colorado (see Resources). The land is owned and administered by the town of Crestone and offers a spectacular view of the adjacent Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Six acres are fenced and platted with twenty-by-twenty-foot lots and five-foot aisles. Burial regulations are minimal, with no restrictions or requirements regarding caskets, embalming, vaults, or decorations. While all types of burials are allowed, including traditional ones, there have been no burials using concrete vaults.

  “Ancient Vikings lit funeral pyres to honor their dead, and it is accepted practice among Buddhist and Hindu religions,” stated Ivan Moreno in a 2011 Associated Press report, “but the practice is largely taboo in the United States.”

  Besides Crestone, funeral pyres in the United States are only conducted by religious groups, such as a Buddhist temple in nearby Red Feather Lakes, and these burials are available only to members. Typically, the funeral pyre is similar to a fire pit at a campground, only larger. The body is wrapped in a plain cloth shroud, and at Red Feather Lakes, juniper logs and branches are used for kindling. Family members are offered the choice to light the funeral pyre themselves with a torch. According to the Associated Press story, “Volunteers counsel grieving family, help arrange the deceased to repose at home before the cremation, and prepare the hearth with kindling the day before the ceremony.”

  TALES FROM THE GRAVE

  They are formally known as “forensic anthropology research facilities,” but these outdoor areas are more commonly known as “body farms.” At body farms, dead bodies are tracked as they move through the various stages of decomposition. Seven body farms currently operate in the United States. The first body farm broke ground in the 1970s and was created by Dr. William Bass, a forensic anthropologist, who wanted to study human decomposition to solve crimes.

  Like body donation, this is “green burial” in the name of science and education.

  Green Burials of Tomorrow

  Not only will life look a lot different in the future, but death will, too. Here are four techniques that may define the green burials of tomorrow, and some of them are available today!

  Upright or Vertical Burials

  Many people who choose cremation over traditional burial do so because they don’t want to take up so much space after death, in addition to the lower cost of cremation — about $2,000 compared to about $7,000 for a conventional burial — and other environmental reasons.

  But what if you were buried upright? In Australia (and a few other places), vertical burials are being adopted as a green approach to traditional burial. In a cemetery near Melbourne, the deceased are placed in biodegradable shrouds and buried in cylindrical holes, in a feet-first position. This method allows for twice as many burial spaces as a typical cemetery, and since no embalming or expensive casket is used, it is truly a green burial.

  I can see how a vertical burial kind of ruins the image of eternal rest. But I like to think being interred in an upright orientation would make one much more aerodynamic, making it easier to float to heaven more quickly.

  Freeze-Dried Cadavers

  Adapting a concept that has been applied to food but not people, Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak has been developing a method of green burial that uses freeze-drying. Her company is called Promessa, which is derived from th
e Italian word for “promise,” and it’s successfully tested the process. A dead body is placed in liquid nitrogen, which removes the water from the body, effectively freeze-drying it, and then vibrations disintegrate the body into fine particles, which are sealed inside a biodegradable coffin and buried in a shallow grave. In under a year, the remains become compost or nutrient-rich soil. Wiigh-Mäsak hopes that this becomes yet one more environmentally friendly way to dispose of human remains.

  Capsula Mundi

  Based in Italy, Capsula Mundi is another green burial concept that’s still being developed and tested. The idea is that the deceased will be placed in a fetal position inside an organic, egg-shaped pod, which will then be buried with a tree planted on top of it. Over time, this will create a burial forest rather than a burial ground.

  The Capsula Mundi pods will be entirely organic and will break down easily, allowing the body to decompose naturally and infuse the soil with natural nutrients. While no bodies have been used yet, they are testing the technique using cremation ashes. Of course, the resulting tree replaces the headstone, making a natural marker, and people could choose the species of tree they prefer, though designers Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel note that it would be best to choose species indigenous to the local ecosystem, since they would adapt and grow best.