The Centre for Natural Burial

Going to the green beyond » Mortuary offers alternative funeral

By Stephen Hunt, The Salt Lake Tribune

Imagine you or your loved one buried simply, in a plain pine box without the use of toxic embalming fluid and laid to rest in a place in harmony with the native landscape.

Memorial Cemeteries and Mortuaries — the first funeral company in the state to offer a “green burial” option — can make it happen. They promise an eco-friendly funeral with a biodegradable casket.

So far, Memorial has set aside one area, in the foothills above Bountiful, which meets the criteria for a green burial ground. However, a green funeral may be followed by burial in a conventional cemetery at any of memorial’s seven locations including Redwood Memorial Mortuary at 650 S. Redwood Road.

“Violet, blue, yellow, silver, green — the kaleidoscope of colors from Utah wildflowers — paints a scene of untouched beauty,” according to a Web site description of Memorial’s green burial ground in Bountiful. “Deer and other wildlife freely roam. This is pure nature. This is a pure burial.”

On a sunny December day, the flowers are gone. Snow covers the burial ground, and the surrounding oaks are bare of leaves, but the views of the Great Salt Lake and the Oquirrh Mountains are spectacular.

Despite the serene location and inviting advertising copy, no one has signed up for a green burial yet. However, the service has been available since September.

“There is a lot of chatter, a lot of questions,” said memorial’s general manager, Brandon Burningham.
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“On our blog, it’s one of our most popular topics. It’s so new to Utah, people are trying to find out what it is.”

Burningham is convinced the increased interest in environmental issues will spark a desire for green burials in Utah.

“There seems to be a niche out there for people who want this,” he said, adding that the role of a funeral professional is to “make sure we have every avenue available to a family.”

A green burial entails refrigeration rather than embalming fluid to preserve the body. Caskets are made of woven sea grass or willow, poplar or pine. Graves are dug by hand. Grave markers are unobtrusive brass plaque, flat stones or newly planted trees. Concrete burial vaults are not used.

Taylorsville resident Carol George, 65, said she was in a quandary over whether to be buried or cremated. Then she read an article about green burial.

“It just sounded right,” George said. “I think it’s just terrible to pay all that money for a funeral and the embalming and the casket. Your body is going to deteriorate no matter how you bury it. Why not use a plain pine box with your body wrapped in a shroud with no embalming?”

George also said she was impressed green burials cost half to two-thirds less than conventional funerals.

“I am in the process of looking for the place that I like most,” George said.

Lakeview has been approved by the New Mexico-based Green Burial Council, which has established green standards for cemeteries, funeral providers and burial products.

Joe Sehee, founder and executive director of the council, said the concept of green burial is growing quickly. He cited customer dissatisfaction with conventional options, coupled with a new eco-consciousness and a desire for more participation in end-of-life rituals.

“Families don’t want business as usual,” Sehee said. “They want companies who will handle them with a different ethic.”

Green burial “provides solace, knowing they are a part of the cycle of life, death, decay and rebirth,” he said. “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust is in our spiritual DNA.”

Conventional death care in America has become about “stopping the process of decay” by use of chemicals and sealing bodies inside caskets and burial vaults, Sehee said. He said some people find “something icky” about the embalming process. Others are adverse to buying an expensive casket that will be used for a day or two before it is buried forever.

Sehee has calculated that during conventional funerals American yearly bury enough metal to rebuild the Golden Gate bridge and enough concrete to build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit.

Burningham said the cemetery is “excited” about the future.

“We’re prepared for it,” he added. “Now we want to see if it’s really going to be of service to people.”

To begin with, the company has set aside 100 spaces for green burials at its Bountiful cemetery. However, if the need arises, there is additional land for expansion of that option.

“It’s in its infancy,” Burningham said. “I hope it happens. I hope that the demand is there.”