The Centre for Natural Burial

By Jennifer Burk - jburk@macon.com
A new law that will make it tougher to build new cemeteries and will prohibit natural burials in Bibb County has drawn national attention.
Natural burial and consumer advocates have come forward to say county commissioners are misinformed in their decision to severely limit cemetery locations and dictate how bodies are buried.

No embalming necessary: ‘Green cemetery’ rises
Cost lower than average burial, uses nonbiodegradable coffins
By ROSALIND BENTLEY, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On his 66th birthday last May, Harry E. Echols learned he had esophageal cancer.
The prognosis was grim enough that Echols decided against treatment that might only slow the inevitable. With the help of his sister, Janet Ferguson, the […]

The green movement has come to the funeral industry.
By Ronda Miller, The Journal-World
Funeral directors say green burials have begun to catch on as more people opt to forego traditional cremation or embalming techniques.
Surprising to many people, those traditional techniques aren’t required in most states. Some people are skipping the metal caskets, burial vaults and embalming […]

By L.L. Woodard, Common Sense Blog
n our-ever evolving quest to treat our earth and environment more gently, there have been some awesome and some not-so-awesome discoveries and changes. I happily stumbled upon what I hope will become a trend of the not-so-distant future.

By Lisa-Ann, Scattershots from the road (blog)
Both my interest in genealogy and my Catholic faith have given me opportunity to reflect on the hereafter and memorials.  I have long told my husband I want a simple burial, in a quiet setting.  I prefer traditional cemeteries, but my grandparents are buried in a park-like, tree-filled cemetery, […]

By Kirsten Scharnberg, Chicago Tribune
When Billy Campbell’s father died a number of years ago, the family did what was expected at the time: Bury him in a historic cemetery behind the family’s Methodist church.
The setting was lovely and bucolic, but Campbell, a devoted land conservationist, couldn’t stop thinking, “With what we spent on that funeral, […]

No embalming, no metal caskets, no vaults and, for some, a contribution to land conservation
By Kirsten Scharnbergm, Chicago Tribune
When Billy Campbell’s father died a number of years ago, the family did what was expected at the time: Bury him in a historic cemetery behind the family’s Methodist church.
The setting was lovely and bucolic, but Campbell, […]

By Mark Harris, Grave Matters Blog
The Ramsey Creek Preserve, as enthusiasts of natural burial know, is the first — and until recently only — green cemetery in the United States.
On a trip down to Georgia last week, I stopped off in tiny Westminster, South Carolina, to tour its leafy grounds for first time since visiting […]

Some cemeteries are requiring eco-friendly burials, including such things as biodegradable caskets.
By David Colker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
It’s the ultimate recycling.
With environmental matters getting ever more popular in life, it was only a matter of time before they spread to death too.

An Atlanta-area monastery looks to “green burials” to sustain a cloistered lifestyle
by Gabrielle Coppola, Business Week Magazine
Father Francis Michael, abbot of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery, spends his days watching the birds, butterflies, and dragonflies that inhabit the order’s grounds about 30 miles east of downtown Atlanta. In August, the monks of Our […]