Natural burial: no headstone, no casket required
By Bal Brach , Canwest News Service
A small rural community an hour and a half northwest of Toronto soon could be home to a natural burial cemetery - where people are laid to rest without embalming, a casket or a headstone.
“We’re using native plant material as part of the memorial to create a protected green space,” said Mike Salisbury, co-founder of The Natural Burial Cooperative Inc. “I don’t know if I’d want to live beside a conventional cemetery, but in this case it’s going to be a forest with maintained pathways,” he said.
A 100-acre private property along the banks of the Saugeen River in Paisley, Ont., is the proposed site for the cemetery.
Salisbury, a landscape architect and Guelph city councillor, said the owner of the land approached him when he wanted to do something environmentally friendly with it.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to put Paisley on the map,” he said. “It is a revolutionary way of creating and conserving green space.”
Salisbury presented his plan to the public on Monday. A number of local residents attended the meeting and mainly had questions about the techniques, he said. “At this point, it was very much an information meeting - there wasn’t any decision being made. But it was well received,” said Salisbury, who now will complete a planning report for the county.
Natural burial involves a biodegradable casket or shroud and instead of a headstone, a tree is planted on each grave.
“The key difference with natural burial is using the trees and shrubs as part of the memorial,” he added. “But the actual process of burying in a natural way is both how it has been done since the beginning of time up until 100 years ago, and also still done in a lot of rural areas . . . and continues to be done in most of the world.”
Formaldehyde, the primary ingredient in embalming fluids and a potential carcinogen (it’s on the European Union’s list for possible banning) is another concern. According to The Natural Burial Cooperative, North Americans bury nearly 3.8 million litres of embalming fluid every year, some of which eventually leaches out and runs into surrounding soil and groundwater. Although not enough research has been done to make definitive judgments about formaldehyde’s effect on the environment many environmentalists would rather not see chemicals bleeding into the ecosystem.
In Ontario, current funeral laws state a body must be placed in a rigid container prior to burial - although Salisbury said he’s unaware of such a restriction. “I’m not entirely certain about that,” he said. “I have not come across that rigid container regulation.”
The cost of an average funeral service and casket in Canada is close to $6000, according to the Funeral Service Association of Canada. Salisbury said a natural burial would cut that cost in half. “You can actually get biodegradable caskets for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars,” he said.
The idea of natural burials has been popular in the U.S. and in the U.K., according to Salisbury.
“In the U.K., 20 per cent of their burials are in natural burial grounds. In the United States, 10 years ago there was one (natural burial cemetery) now there’s about seven existing and five more planned,” he said.
Although The Natural Burial Cooperative Inc., has raised $12,000 for the project, Salisbury said $400,000 is still required to create the cemetery. He hopes to raise the funds in the coming months.
© CanWest News Service 2008
I am pleased that our world is finally looking at going green even at death. After all, we are responsible for the pollution and enviromenetal damage to our earth. This is a natural process to re-enter the physical remains to the earth at death, as the soul continues to live on.