The law requires funeral homes to accept any appropriate burial container without assessing an additional fee. Because green burial gives you the freedom to decline unnecessary services and merchandise, it is generally easier on your budget. You can help your loved ones cover your costs by applying for final expense insurance , also known as funeral insurance or burial insurance. Natural burial promotes the restoration of poor soil areas and allows for long-term reuse of the land. Natural burial sections typically do not allow upright monuments.
Individual graves are identified with a marker flush with the ground at the head of the body. The markers may be a natural rock or a plaque, although they are not typically set using concrete. Some natural burial sites choose to have no physical markers, instead indicating grave locations recorded by GPS. To preserve the pristine natural landscape and protect native plants and wildlife, most green cemeteries limit personal plantings and memorial decorations like potted flowers, wreaths, flags, chimes, and balloons.
If this approach appeals to you, you will need to search for specific green funeral homes or natural cemeteries that are certified to perform burials this way, and you may need special permission from your state or county to be buried naturally.
Some states allow you to conduct a burial on private land, but this differs from state to state. If this appeals to you, be sure to check your state laws. A hybrid cemetery is a conventional cemetery that offers the essential aspects of natural burial, either throughout the cemetery or in a designated section. Hybrid cemeteries can earn a certification that does not require them to use vaults.
This will allow you to use any eco-friendly, biodegradable burial container such as a shroud or a soft wood casket. The goal of a natural burial ground is to restore or preserve a natural landscape populated by native vegetation and wildlife. Many support sustainable management through land conservation efforts by avoiding fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides to encourage native habitats.
Conservation burial takes environmental stewardship a step further, committing burial fees to pay for land acquisition, protection, restoration, and management. These tend to be expansive tracts of land, sometimes contiguous with an existing park, critical habitat area, wildlife refuge, or nature conservancy area.
Every cemetery has its own policies. For example, many green cemeteries do not use any machinery or heavy equipment for digging the gravesite. Instead, the gravesites are dug by hand. But this is not necessarily the rule. In addition, some natural cemeteries have very strict limitations on the decorations permitted on-site, while others encourage unique decor throughout the grounds.
Unlike traditional cemeteries, many natural burial grounds permit flowers and other plants to be grown directly on top of the gravesite. Be sure to inquire about any special restrictions before buying a plot. If you have very specific wishes, consult with a few locations to make sure your final requests will be honored. Green caskets made of plain wood, wicker, and even cardboard are acceptable — and encouraged — at most green cemeteries.
There are many new products that cater to these types of burials, including biodegradable containers that are made from paper, cardboard, willow, sea-grass, or bamboo that can break down with little environmental impact. Supplying your own green casket instead of buying an expensive option from a funeral director saves a lot of money, but opting for a burial shroud and foregoing the casket entirely can further reduce the cost.
You can sew a shroud or hire a tailor to make one for you at a reasonable price or you can simply have your loved one wrapped in a favorite blanket or quilt made of natural materials like cotton or wool. There are no laws prohibiting green or natural burial. But you must be familiar with both federal regulations and your individual state laws for where a person can be naturally buried. Green burials are legal in all 50 states, but each one has its own rules about where and how they can be done.
A local funeral director can give you all of the guidance you need to have an eco-friendly service. No state law requires the use of a casket for burial.
A person can be directly interred in the earth, in a shroud, or in a vault without a casket. Funeral homes and cemeteries may have their own rules regarding casket use.
Although not usually required by law, conventional burial often sees the body embalmed. Embalming fluid contains chemicals like formaldehyde that may damage the ground because it can pollute the soil as the body degrades. Additional issues like toxins in the varnish on the casket and invasive concrete vaults that prevent natural reclamation are also seen as impediments to sustainability. Green burials can be substantially less expensive because they do not include the high costs of embalming, ornate caskets, or concrete vaults.
Vaults, made of concrete, also require considerable resources. Finally, even a headstone or monument could be considered a draw on resources that could someday become scarce. Even without the scarcity, the mining and transport of materials like granite, which is used on many headstones, takes precious resources in the form of energy consumption.
Because of these reasons, natural burials offer many advantages. Natural burial s are beneficial because they eliminate all the concerns that many people have about traditional burial. The guiding principle s of this type of burial are concern for the environment and oneness with the environment.
In order to qualify as a green burial, the cemetery where the burial occurs must meet certain eco-friendly criteria. For example, natural burial does not involve using formaldehyde, a known carcinogen that poses health risks to the people who work in funeral homes. Instead, non-toxic materials are used for sanitation and preservation. Among these are essential oils, which are also biodegradable as well as non-toxic.
Here are some other natural burial advantages. Natural burial also means that the loved one is closer to Earth, a part of the earth, with no concrete vaults or metal caskets separating the person from nature.
Avoiding toxins in the workplace is just one benefit of choosing natural burial. Here are a few more:. The movement started when British cemeteries became crowded and people became aware of the limitations of land resources.
Here in the United States, we may have more land , but there are still limits to the acreage that can be dedicated to burial in the traditional methods. The early movement also came to be associated with a certain mode of spirituality. Those who chose this method of burial were people who had been deeply connected to nature on a spiritual level during their lives. While that association is still true, there are lots of other reasons to choose natural burial.
Anyone who understands the benefits of natural burial is likely to consider this option. From people who lived a life close to nature , to people who made a stand against the destruction of the environment in some way during their lives, to people whose families desire a more purposeful burial option, natural burial makes sense for all kinds of people and their families. What is a Burial Plan?
Do Veterans Get Buried for Free? In addition, land can be restored with native plants and a community is built around the cemetery,. For more information or to locate a conservation burial ground in your area, visit the Conservation Burial Alliance. In studies done on groundwater outside a conventional cemetery, they found more evidence of water contamination from casket and embalming materials than from human decay.
Here is an excellent review of the science and studies done on the subject, where we learn:. Although there is some evidence of microbiological contamination in the immediate vicinity of cemeteries, the rapid [reduction] of the microorganisms suggests that they pose little risk to the public. Green burials tend to be shallower than most conventional burials— the body is placed nearer to the surface is where all the good, nutrient rich soil is.
The perfect soil to decompose your body and put it to use. Burial at feet rather than feet places the body at a depth that allows greater oxygen flow, which in turn feeds bacteria, resulting in more rapid, efficient decomposition. In addition, at a depth of feet, beneficial carrion beetles burrow in to aid the process. Cemeteries are allowed to set their individual policies. So, if a cemetery wants to require that a family purchase a casket and a vault for the dead body so it is easier for them to keep the ground level and landscape they are within their rights to do so.
It is not the law. Do you own a piece of land you think might make a good natural burial ground? Here is a primer on starting a green cemetery. If you are a resident of the United States, this map of green burial grounds and this frequently updated master list of Green Burial Cemeteries in the US and Canada are excellent places to start searching for a green burial ground in your area. Good luck on your journey to find just the right place for your future corpse. We get it.
For the environmentally focused future corpse, becoming a tree is, simply put, afterlife goals. Trees are an invaluable part of the carbon cycle.
Yet for over a century, modern funeral practices have attempted to slow decomposition and lock the nutrients a body can provide into metal and concrete boxes below ground. As a final bonus, there is emerging evidence that trees possess a form of cooperation and communication , connecting underground through fungal networks colloquially known as the wood-wide web.
For those of us without strong religious beliefs, becoming part of a plant that will continue to thrive and communicate for years after we die is a kind of immortality we may never have dreamed possible. You are a purist! Put you straight into the soil and plant a tree over you. Seems simple enough, right? Not always. Your local cemetery may require a vault to be placed around your body, cutting you off from the dirt and any potential aid to a nearby tree.
Yes… really. In seeking your cemetery it is best to look for the labels: green, natural, or conservation. These cemeteries are most likely to let you be buried naked in a simple shroud directly into the earth. Even if you find a green cemetery, ask questions!
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