It’s Not Easy Being Green
By Going Out Green Blog
“Green Revolution Hits Dead End in Georgia Cemetery Proposal,” read the headline of the Wall Street Journal last Friday. At least for now, residents of Bibb County, Georgia, have killed the dream of Elizabeth Collins to open a 57-acre natural cemetery on the eastern edge of Macon when board commissioners enacted a new ordinance that requires a “leak-proof casket or vault” for burials.
And, if a key fact in this story is indeed true, maybe it’s no wonder.
She [Elizabeth Collins] and a partner bought a plot of land here and wrote a business plan that identified pagans, “old hippies,” penny pinchers, environmentalists and Muslims—who traditionally bury the dead without caskets—as their target market. There would be room for 7,500 customers. Dead pets would be welcome, too.
Pagans, old hippies, and penny pinchers…Oh my!
Ms. Collins obviously didn’t get the memo, but if green burials are ever going to become as popular here as they are in the United Kingdom, the movement is going to have to actively work to convince the mainstream public that green burials are a good idea for everyone. None of the above terms carry much of a positive connotation these days, so I wonder if the good citizens of Bibb County can really be faulted for saying, more or less, “Not in my backyard.”
According to the report, Ms. Collins says the residents who are against her have “an illogical fear of natural burials” and still hopes to win the locals over to her side. Maybe a good place to start would be to re-work the wording on that business plan.