The Centre for Natural Burial

Dying is part of life and so are funerals. But are you aware of how much damage we cause the earth even after death? Did you know that 60 million trees are axed every year to build coffins? Gases emittted during cremations account for 16 percent of the UKs mercury emissions. Construction of vaults for burials lead to the introduction of about 1.6 million tons of concrete in the soil. There are around 56 million deaths each year and this figure is expected to double by 2040, so the situation will only worsen.

We don’t really stop to think of the materials that are used to manufacture items like caskets that are used in traditional funeral services. According to recent research, the quantity of metal used to make the caskets used in North America is equal to the amount of metal used to manufacture the Golden Gate Bridge. Some funeral service rituals sometimes require embalming. Since these embalming fluids are supposed to retard the process of decomposition of the body by inhibiting the growth of bacteria, they also inhibit the growth of bacteria and other important enzymes in the soil.

To prevent all this damage to the environment, we can now choose to opt for greener funeral services.

Green burial tips

One way of ensuring that a funeral is environmentally friendly is to use a biodegradable casket. If you use a coffin made of used paper, buried in a place where there are trees and shrubs, the body will slowly become a part of the environment.

An alternative method would be to cremate bodies before the embalming process. If the body is embalmed, cremating it leads to air pollution because of the toxic gases released during the cremation.

Headstones obstruct the growth of trees and lead to pollution. Thus you may choose to have a living memorial for yourself or your loved one in the form of a tree. If this becomes a practice then it will be easier for the survivors of the decedent to cope with the loss because they will have a living substitute for the person who is no more and also lead to the planting of millions of trees. In England there are more than two hundred environmentally-friendly burial sites. With all that choice you can choose one close to your home.

Another novel environment-friendly option is to get your ashes mixed with reef material. The materials are then placed in the ocean. Eventually it becomes a new reef. This promotes the growth of organisms that grow on reefs and restores the ecological balance of the planet.

With so many options, it is now much easier to plan a funeral service and burial that will not harm the environment.

Environmental funerals need to be considered to protect the planet. Get more funeral information on: green funerals