Resources and Information Supporting Green Burial in North America
By Robbie Byrd, THE HUNTSVILLE ITEM
OAKHURST, TEXAS— She had been battling cancer for nearly two years now, and finally she drew her last breath surrounded by friends and family. They took her frail body — wrapped in a warm down comforter — and lined her grave with Spanish moss, just as she had asked them to. They placed her on a plywood plank and, with ropes, mourners slowly lowered her into a hole on one of the many wildlife preservation sites she had dedicated her final years to protecting.
By Cameron Katrina, Myspace Blog
‘Green’ burial includes no embalming and the use of wrapping the body in a shroud or placing them (the deceased) in a completely bio-degradable coffin/casket that can be made of non-treated wood, wicker, or cardboard. Instead of creating large cemeteries that are only used for the dead and the use of valuable land space, conservation cemeteries are popping up across the country. Here, people can be buried ‘green’ and can have a rose bush, tree, rock, just about anything natural placed to mark where they are buried and will not disrupt the environment.
By Daniel Barden
THE area’s first new-style woodland burial park is soon to be open in North Weald.
Planners gave the green light for the 52-acre Epping Forest Burial Park last year and now an open day is being held for people to get a first glimpse how the mature woodland cemetery will look.
BBC News
Concerns have been raised over the lack of natural burial sites in Cornwall. The county currently has one site near Penzance for environmentally friendly burials while Devon has seven sites. The Association for Natural Burial Grounds (ANBG) said the problem was particularly prevalent in Cornwall and the South East.
If you think it’s hard to live in an environmentally conscious manner, just wait until you’re dead!
By Michael Kalmanovitch, SEE magazine
Even in death, Michael Kalmanovitch will follow the cardinal rules of conservation. He wants his body rendered, “like any other animal,” and hopefully recycled–rendering, of course, being the process by which a body is crushed or boiled to seperate the fat from the bone. The fat can then be used to make animal feed, wax, glue, etc.
Many people prefer not to think about death, maybe hoping that if they don’t think about it, it’ll never happen.
I’m fascinated by death - how it happens, how we deal with it, attitudes towards it. Since 1991 I’ve conducted almost 1000 funerals without religion as a Humanist Celebrant, so I’ve learned a lot about British attitudes to death, dying and bereavement, and a lot of social history. Death doesn’t discriminate - it comes to all classes, all ages, all races.
BBC News
A town running out of burial space in its churchyard is hoping to set up a memorial website to encourage people to use a natural burial ground nearby.
By Philip Proefrock, Green Options
The move towards a greener lifestyle extends even to the end of life. Choices for the final resting place include some relatively new approaches. Many of these developments seem to be coming out of the United Kingdom and from Europe, though they are being adopted in other countries, as well.
By AMEERAH CETAWAYO, The Bowling Green Daily News
Plans for a cemetery that would have carried natural or “green” burials were scrapped, for now, after growing opposition from neighbors and general concerns about the plans for the project surfaced.
By: Kelli B. Kavanaugh, metromode
Driving north from the skyscrapers and stadiums of downtown Detroit to Upland Hills Farm, just north of Rochester in Addison Township, is a study in quick transitions: from urban core to suburban sprawl to rolling pastures and forests in just 45 minutes.