Special Report: Eco-friendly burials
By Anita Kissee and KATU Web Staff
PORTLAND, Ore. - Perhaps you’ve heard of green weddings, but how about a green funeral?
It’s the next big thing in eco-friendly practices and there are a number of options that can help you return to the earth in the most sustainable way possible.
Cynthia Beal wants to go green when she passes away. “I would love to have an Oregon cherry tree planted over me,” she said. “And I want it to be turned into musical instruments and bowls.”
How does she plan to do that? It’s called an ECOPOD. “It’s just like heavy duty paper mache,” she explained. “It’s completely biodegradable so this breaks down in the earth really quickly.”
Beal launched the Natural Burial Company in north Portland and sells handmade coffins that are biodegradable.
For those who prefer to be cremated, there are handmade urns that don’t even look like urns.
“It’s a wonderful piece of art and no one would ever guess ashes are in it,” said Beal.
There are also unique products, like the DNA crystal vault, which Beal shows us in this video.
“This is our earth that we’re passing on to our children and there are a lot of things we can do to reduce our own footprint,” said Andrea Wyatt, a third generation funeral home director.
Wyatt is taking Mt. Scott Funeral Home into the new century by adding eco-friendly options because customers are catching on.
“We try to let people choose something that means a lot to them, especially if they’re recycling in their home and making those kinds of choices,” she said. “We want them to be able to take that choice all the way to the end of their lives.”
Eco-friendly burials may be new to the United States, but Britain has been doing them for 15 years and has 200 burial grounds that are exclusively green. Here in the U.S., there are only six.
However, traditional cemeteries are starting to set aside green areas. For example, Valley Memorial Park in Hillsboro is one of the first local cemeteries to forgo headstones in a designated park, opting for memorial trees and rocks instead.
David Schroeder with Valley Memorial Park said no traditional coffin or urn will ever go in the ground, only the biodegradable type.
“A certain segment of the market likes the naturalness and the park-like, woodsy setting, as opposed to a manicured lawn” he said.
All of this does make economic sense. With two million funerals every year, the industry earns $11 billion. As baby boomers age that figure will increase, along with the demand for green burials.
Also, cemeteries like going green because with no chemicals or synthetic metals and plastic decomposing into the earth, the land can be reused for generations to come.
“Green isn’t a fad, green isn’t an ideal, green isn’t a fantasy fairy tale in the sky,” said Beal. “Green is sustainable because sustainable works over the long run.”