The Centre for Natural Burial

By Hillary M, AssociatedContent.com

For many the conventional options available for their remains after death simply are not appealing. Some simply do not sit well with the thought of cremation, yet the alternative of being preserved and placed in the ground for eternity seems unnatural. Whether your motivation for another option for your remains after death is financial, environmental or fear based a green burial may be the solution that is right for you.

Many people view the body as nothing more than a home for their soul. Relatively, they see little point being embalmed and essentially being placed in a underground fortress for decades to come. Traditional burial also yield a plethora of environmental problems that concern many people both who are environmentally conscious or not. Conventional burials contribute to the use and release of toxic chemicals into our environment. There is no benefit to embalming fluids other than they preserve your remains for far longer than necessary. Additionally, traditional cemeteries typically don’t allow for many types of natural growth.

Cremation would seem to many the obvious alternative choice to traditional burial. However, cremation yields its own set of problems as well. Contrary to popular belief cremation does require a casket of sorts during the burning process. Although this concern can be somewhat alleviated by selecting a simple coffin that is not lined and contains no chipboard or plastic, it does not completely erase the environmental impact. During the process of cremation pollutants such as dioxins, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide are all released into the atmosphere. This fact simply can’t be changed.