The Centre for Natural Burial

By Cat Andersen, Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - As people decide to go green in their lives, it only follows that they might want to keep the environment in mind when the time comes to shuffle off this mortal coil. The funeral industry is getting on board with new ideas for eco-friendly memorials.

To honor a loved one’s departure from earth, more and more Americans are taking an earth-friendly route, trading in gas-powered motorcades for processions on foot,  planting a tree instead of a tombstone and choosing biodegradable caskets over the metal and marble kind.

Barb Milton at Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Centers showed off some eco-friendly options for caskets, including a woven basket-type casket. “It can withstand the weight of 300 pounds plus and it is made totally of biodegradable products.”

For cremated remains, you can now buy an urn made of corn. “It’ll disintegrate after about two hours out in the ground or in water,” said Milton. Another option is an urn made of salt. That dissolves just as fast as the corn-based urn.

“The local hunters like it because they can take it out to the woods, the deer use it as a salt lick and their friend is still part of the event,” Milton said.

To reduce land use, some are passing on plots at the cemetery and recycling their remains to go out in style. “They take a portion of cremated remains put it under compression and return to you a diamond, and your chemistry will determine what color that stone is going to be, anywhere from a yellow to a red to a blue. Then it can be mounted as a piece of jewelry,” Milton said.

Now traditional cemeteries are moving toward cremation gardens where natural rocks are replacing tombstones to mark a person’s remains.  Experts say it’s not only a greener option. For some it’s a better grieving option - a place where you can reflect a person’s living memory among nature’s living things.

Some in the funeral industry have formed the Green Burial Council, which is behind an effort to lift the cement vault requirement in place at many cemeteries.