Environmental issues with conventional burial
Each year, 22,500 cemeteries across the United States alone bury approximately*:
| What is green burial?
According to the Green Burial Council, green burial is a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact that furthers legitimate ecological aims such as the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and the restoration and/or preservation of habitat.
Doesn’t cremation create a lot of pollution?
Cremation uses far fewer resources than almost any other disposition option but it certainly has an environmental impact. Cremation burns fossil fuels, and some older cremation facilities can use significantly more energy compared to newer ones. Mercury is also emitted when a person with dental amalgam fillings is cremated, but effective filtration devices that can fully mitigate mercury pollution are being used at some cremation facilities.
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Natural burial
In a natural burial, the body is prepared without chemical preservatives or disinfectants such as embalming fluid that may destroy the microbial decomposers active in breaking the body down. The body is usually buried in a biodegradable coffin, casket, or shroud. The grave does not use a burial vault or outer burial container that prohibits the body's contact with soil. The grave should be dug to a depth shallow enough to allow microbial activity similar to that found in composting. Natural burials can take place on both private land (per regulations) and in any cemetery that will accommodate the vault-free technique.
It was customary over the past several decades to embalm the body in order to temporarily retard decomposition for viewing. Often because of the toxic compounds used, it can be deemed inconsistent with the objectives of natural burial. No province in Canada requires routine embalming of bodies.Today, non-toxic and naturally derived embalming fluids without formaldehyde cure most objections to ground contamination. When specified by provincial ordinance (usually within 24 hours of death), mechanical refrigeration or chilling by using dry ice or some other method can be substituted for embalming. Special circumstances such as an extended time between death and burial and transportation of remains on commercial flights that do not currently permit unembalmed bodies to travel may necessitate embalming by conventional methods.
It was customary over the past several decades to embalm the body in order to temporarily retard decomposition for viewing. Often because of the toxic compounds used, it can be deemed inconsistent with the objectives of natural burial. No province in Canada requires routine embalming of bodies.Today, non-toxic and naturally derived embalming fluids without formaldehyde cure most objections to ground contamination. When specified by provincial ordinance (usually within 24 hours of death), mechanical refrigeration or chilling by using dry ice or some other method can be substituted for embalming. Special circumstances such as an extended time between death and burial and transportation of remains on commercial flights that do not currently permit unembalmed bodies to travel may necessitate embalming by conventional methods.
Memorialization
A natural burial ground often utilizes a variety of memorialization techniques that vary from designer to designer - the prohibition of headstones, tributes, and other common markers is up to each individual cemetery and its users. Planting trees, shrubs, and flowers on or near the grave establishes a living memorial and helps create habitat.
Irrigation, pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers may be significantly reduced or eliminated altogether, in favor of non-toxic and less resource-dependent vegetation support and control.
