Conventional Burial
The Truth About Conventional Burial.
With a typical modern funeral, the body is laid naked on a stainless steel embalmer’s table, bled out, and pumped full of noxious chemicals to keep the body fresh. Following the viewing, the body is sealed inside a metal casket or lacquered wooden coffin lined with plush satin and adorned with beautiful brass accessories… which is then lowered into a concrete vault and buried.
The reinforced concrete tomb is covered with a ton of dirt, and planted with a monoculture of grass which is kept artificially green with pest and weed killer. Above ground, the local cemetery may look pastoral and natural, however, below the surface; it serves to all intents and purposes, as a landfill of hazardous wastes and non-biodegradable materials.
The whole operation will take less than a week and cost your heirs and family more than the price of a new car.
Across North America millions of people are given this standard, funeral home send-off each year. Outfitting each of them demands the extraction and consumption of vast amounts of resources and leaves a trail of environmental damage in its wake.
A ten-acre swatch of cemetery ground will contain enough coffin wood to construct more than 40 homes, nearly a thousand tons of casket steel and another twenty thousand tons of concrete for vaults. Across North America enough metal is diverted into coffin and vault production each year to build the Golden Gate Bridge, and enough concrete is used to build a two-lane highway from Toronto to Montreal… and back again.
Formaldehyde, the primary ingredient in embalming fluids and a potential carcinogen (on the European Union’s list for possible banning) is another concern. We bury nearly a million gallons of embalming fluid every year in North America, some of which eventually leaches out and runs into surrounding soil and groundwater. Not enough research has been done to make definitive judgments about formaldehyde’s effect on the environment; however its effect on members of the mortuary trade is clearer. Numerous studies have shown that embalmers and funeral directors exhibit a higher incidence of leukemia and cancers of the brain and colon, among other ailments.
Alternatively, a natural burial takes the concept of “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” to heart with a simple, natural, and meaningful alternative to the wastefulness and extravagant consumption of the traditional funeral.
A natural burial it’s about completing the circle of life. What could be more beautiful than to become a part of nature? Perhaps a molecule from your body will ends up in a berry that a bird eats.