How to be an environmnentalist to the very end, and beyond

It’s hard to get more down to earth than a burial.

Yet there is a growing trend toward simpler, more Earth-friendly funerals that focus on sustainability as much as spirituality.

An Earth-friendly funeral can mean many different things, said Todd Woodside, head of pre-needs funerals for Chandler Funeral Homes.

Sometimes, it means choosing caskets made from materials that regenerate in a few months, like bamboo, rather than oak, which takes a lifetime to mature, he said. Other times, it means a new take on recycling: With rental caskets, the interior is removed and cremated with the body, while the expensive wood exterior is reused.

It can also means choices made behind the scene.

For instance, Chandler switched to an embalming fluid without formaldehyde, a pollutant that may cause cancer, and to water-soluble urns that are 100 percent biodegradable, Woodside said.

“We never want to lose the spirituality . . . but we don’t want to use a bronze casket and have a carbon footprint as big as Rhode Island,” he said.

And although grass in a graveyard is nothing new, even cemeteries are going greener. Fewer require concrete vaults be poured at graves today, Woodside said, which reduces their environmental impact.

Green burials often save greenbacks: caskets made from renewable materials tend to cost less than traditional caskets because they don't use endangered hardwoods or heavy metals for production, said Cheryl Kratz of the Green Burial Council, a nonprofit that keeps tabs on renewable funerary merchandise and certifies cemeteries for eco-friendliness Also, without embalming fees and the cost of concrete vaults, savings could be in the thousands.

Cemeteries run the gambit Katz said, from hybrid burial grounds (traditional cemeteries that are committed to promoting renewable caskets and discouraging embalming), to conservation burial grounds (natural burial areas held in trust by government or conservation agencies).

Burying a loved one in a conservation area can be very rewarding, she said.
Woodside agrees.

The idea of a true dust-to-dust burial has emotional appeal, he said, because families tend to feel more involved in the funeral process, and when no concrete vault is poured into the grave, funeral attendees see a casket lowered into its true final resting place.

“It’s a much more holistic approach to the grieving and funeral.”