Now, You Too Can Be A Tree!
Did you ever wonder what's buried in a cemetery – besides dead bodies? According to Michael d' Estries in a March 25 post in Green Living, "The average cemetery buries 1,000 gallons of embalming fluid, 97.5 tons of steel, 2,028 tons of concrete, and 56,250 board feet of high quality wood in just one acre of green." I don't know what's scarier, dead bodies or 1,000 gallons of embalming fluid. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust – apparently not.
Don't want to spend eternity polluting the Earth? Now you can "go green" even when you're no longer going. Just have a ‘natural burial.’ “It is composting at its best,” said Cynthia Beal, owner of Portland's The Natural Burial Company, in "Green Funerals Feature Biodegradable Coffins," a December 27, 2007 CNN.com/technology post. The Natural Burial Company sells the Ecopod, a kayak shaped coffin made from recycled newspapers. Cynthia's book, "Be a Tree," will be available soon.
Natural burials have been popular in Britain for years. Now many burial companies in the United States are offering a natural alternative. Memorial Ecosystems Inc. opened the first green cemetery in the U.S., The Ramsey Preserve in South Carolina, and green cemeteries are sprouting up all over the country.
The Green Burial Council says it has been working since 2005 “to make burial sustainable for the planet, meaningful for families, and economically viable for the provider." According to its website, greenburialcouncil.org, they're doing it by:
• developing a certification program that is bringing about a new ethic in death care rooted in transparency, accountability and ecological responsibility;
• building out an international network of "approved providers" committed to reducing toxins, waste and carbon emissions associated with conventional end of life rituals; and
• bringing conservation organizations together with cemetery operators, funeral establishments and cremation companies to create burial programs that facilitate the restoration, acquisition and stewardship of natural areas.
Cynthia wants to be a cherry tree, but she and others in the green burial movement are fertilizing the seeds of something grander.
