Staging a traditional funeral can be a long, drawn-out process that can cost thousands of pounds. First you have to buy a coffin. Next you must pay to get the body of your loved one embalmed, and then hold a wake. Finally, you have to shell out for an expensive funeral plot, not to mention cover the cost of a post-wake reception, with drinks and canapes for each and every guest.
Cardboardcasket.com sells, not surprisingly, cardboard caskets. Their “Minimum Casket No 1601” is perhaps the cheapest on the market today – it sells for a mere $49.95.
Some people are happy with all the rituals such a funeral entails, and take comfort in the thought that burying their loved one means they now have a permanent place to visit them again and again. Others, however, balk not only at the cost, but also at the thought of the estimated 50 million people who die each year taking up valuable green space, and end up making a hugely negative impact on the environment.
So what can you do? The answer, my dear Watson, is elementary. If you gotta go, go green.
What is a Green Funeral?
According to the Green Burial Council, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a green burial is one that takes place “without the use of formaldehyde-based embalming, metal caskets, and concrete burial vaults. It’s essentially the way most of humanity has cared for its dead for thousands of years up until the late 19th century. In some instances, green burial can also be used to facilitate ecological restoration and landscape-level conservation.”
Proponents of green burials – also known as natural or eco-friendly burials – point out the following facts when making their plea for more people dying green…
- Embalming is not environmentally friendly mainly due to the use of formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogenic, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. It is estimated that in the United States alone, one million gallons of formaldehyde are buried in the ground every year, most of which will gradually infect our water supplies.
- Cremation can release a lot of dangerous toxins into the atmosphere, including mercury from dental fillings. Burning the coffin along with the body creates even more pollution. Using an eco-friendly coffin, made of bamboo, cardboard, jute etc, is a greener way for us to blend in with nature.
- Graves at green burials are marked either by wild flowers or simple rocks, not by gravestones. And the graves are a lot shallower than the ones used in traditional burials. Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters: Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial, told NPR that a ten-acre cemetery has enough wood that has been made into coffins to construct 40 houses, with enough concrete in the vaults to build swimming pools to complement every abode.
- In almost all states people can bypass funeral home laws and have a funeral on their own. Check to see what the laws are where you live – you may be able to virtually do what you want, within reason. Sometimes you must have a certain amount of acreage to have a burial on your property.
Types of Caskets
The price of a traditional funeral is so high mainly because the cost of a traditional coffin or casket is astronomical. Here are some alternatives:
- The Green Casket Company makes 100 percent biodegradable casket from sustainable wood sourced locally in South Carolina. They are all crafted from solid pine and contain no toxins, stains, metal or preservatives. And they come in three sizes: regular, large and extra large.
- Lunen Handicraft Ltd, based in Heze, China, is capitalizing on the Western desire for green burials by offering caskets made from wicker, seagrass, corn skin and bamboo. Shipping them all the way from China to Smalltown, USA may affect your carbon footprint, however.
- WiseBuy Caskets offers handcrafted Amish caskets made in Indiana that contain no animal by-products, stains, varnishes or plastic. “If you’re looking for a green casket that is also stylish and a great value… this one is for you!” their website reads. They also offer “stunning versions of our hardwood caskets specifically designed for children”. Might as well be advertising roller skates…
- Cardboardcasket.com sells, not surprisingly, cardboard caskets. Their “Minimum Casket No 1601” is perhaps the cheapest on the market today – it sells for a mere $49.95. It is completely environmentally friendly and comes with convenient slot-and-tab assembly. Not bad when you consider that a traditional wooden coffin in the finest wood can cost as much as $10,000 – and more.
Deciding to have a green funeral can make an enormous difference, not only to your budget but to the environment as well. Many cemeteries these days offer to plant a tree in honor of every person buried, which is another way to offset your carbon footprint and leave behind a sustainable legacy for future generations.
If you are thinking of a green funeral for either yourself or your loved ones, either speak to your local funeral director about what options they can provide, or seek a green funeral home. You might also want to get sound advice from green burial specialists about burials in non-traditional places, such as natural woodlands.
If you want a more traditional funeral with touches of green, you can make the passing more eco-friendly by using recycled paper for programs, using local organic flowers and serving organic food. You can also ask people to make gifts to charity instead of giving flowers.
Remember, full natural graveyards decompose quickly, allowing the area to regenerate quickly as well. They then easily can be transformed into picnic sites, playgrounds or nature reserves. “A natural burial allows you to use your funeral as a conservation tool to create, restore and protect urban green spaces,” says the UK-based Centre for Natural Burials, which helps people find natural burial preserves worldwide.
“Natural burial is a new idea – the idea that in choosing how and where we are buried, each one of us can conserve, sustain, and protect the earth… the earth from which, we came and to which we shall return.” In death we give life… now there’s a happy thought.
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