On Leaving Greenly: Eco-friendly Ways to Leave

#green #funeral

7 min read

“…for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” – Genesis 3:19b

As climate change concerns grow, more effort is put toward eco-friendly practices across all industries. This ‘green movement’ also inspires people to rethink end-of-life and how their last contribution impacted the earth by opting for greener death care.

Table of Contents

What Makes a Green Burial?

Although not a new practice, people may argue that their method of choice is the best or the greenest of all. Since there are no real standards or regulations that everyone has agreed on, let’s look at the guidelines from the Green Burial Council.

GBC’s Green Burial Ground Criteria

  • Caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact that aids in the conservation of natural resources
  • Reduction of carbon emissions
  • Protection of worker health
  • Restoration and/or preservation of habitat

Green Burial Cemetery Characteristics

  • Foregoes toxic embalming
  • Does away with vaults
  • Chooses biodegradable containers, caskets, shrouds, and urns
  • Discontinues herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers
  • Encourages sustainable management practices
  • May use GPS units or non-native stone markers to mark grave sites
  • May support land conservation efforts

As we can see, everything on the list focuses not only on minimizing environmental impact, but also conservation of green space: fewer emissions, no toxic chemicals, and only the use of biodegradable materials.

Then what would be considered not green in the modern world is fire cremation and conventional burial that includes embalming the body, cement grave liner, and vaults. Apart from these two, (if you don’t count space burial—yes, that’s also a thing), almost all other types of burials could be considered shades of green.

Types of Green Burials

Now, let’s take a look at different types of green burial practices. We can put them into 2 categories, either a form of natural decomposing or an accelerated decomposing process.

Natural Burial

The most natural way of all is to place a body in the ground and let it decompose naturally. This practice is still common today, especially in Jewish and Islamic traditions. No use of embalming. The body is only covered in a shroud (or maybe a wooden casket in Jewish tradition.)

Another method is tree pod burial, in which the body is put in a fetal position in an egg-shaped pod as a support for tree or plant growth above the surface. The tree can be used as a memorial for the family instead of a headstone.

The main concern for natural burial is land usage. You must have a proper space designated as a cemetery and, usually, the land cannot be repurposed and used for other reasons. So, another option is conservation burial, where you place the body in a protected land to conserve, preserve, or restore the ecology of the land. The grave could transform into a forest or a flower field. This is as natural as it can get.

Another concern is toxic substances inside the body like lead or mercury from dental fillings that could be released into the soil. Jae Rhim Lee has developed a mushroom suit using mushrooms to absorb toxins from the body during the decomposition process.

Human Composting

This is an accelerated body decomposition. The process happens inside a container using water, heat, sawdust, and other organic compounds, similar to the way farmers would compost a deceased animal. Natural decomposition in the ground could take a few years, but with this accelerated process, it only takes a few weeks, and the body will turn into soil separated from bones. This method has the potential to solve land usage issues because the resulting soil can be used on appropriate land and there’s no need for permanent resting space of the deceased.

Water Cremation

Also known as resomation or alkaline hydrolysis, its purpose to accelerate the decomposition process is the same as human composting. The body is placed in a pressure vessel with water mixed with potassium hydroxide and heated for a few hours. The body then dissolves into a liquid containing organic substances with can also be repurposed for agricultural use. The leftover bone can also be turned into ash for the family to collect.

Other Types of Burials

There are many other natural burial practices across all regions and cultures with variations that may not be suitable for most social situations. For instance, a Tibetan practice of sky burial. As the last act of generosity for the animals and the display of detachment from the body, the body is left openly on the ground to feed vultures or other animals. This is also because the wood for burning is hard to find, and the mountain ground is unsuitable for burial.

How ‘Green’ Is It?

Consider this, you’re in a financial crisis and you need to save money. You’ve found you can replace a certain appliance with an eco-friendly alternative that uses no electricity. So, instead of spending $20 a month, it’s now free. How wonderful is that?

When the electronic bill finally comes, you’re eager to see the number go down significantly. But the bill shows that you have a total decrease of 0.03% in cost. What a surprise! You believe it must be an error. So, you call up the electricity company only to find out that 99.7% of the cost was actually from all other appliances in the house combined. The one you replaced only accounted for 0.03% in the first place.

Yes, you’re right. This is where we’re going.

Let’s do some calculations. An American citizen averages roughly 15 tonnes (or 15,000 kilograms) of CO2 equivalent emission per year. If we assume that a person lives to 80 years old, then the total lifetime emission would be 1,200 tons.

If the emission from a single cremation produces around 400 kilograms of CO2, that is 0.03% of the total. It’s discomforting to me as well to say this, but this story represents how much impact a green burial really has.

Hidden Red Cost

What people may often overlook is the impact of the funeral or the ceremony itself. The transportation, the arrangement, the flowers, people coming all over from different places, and other hidden costs that are not included in the actual burial.

You can have a green burial but a red funeral.

However, a funeral is still necessary because it is as much for the dead as for the living. The family and friends need proper closure to help with the healing process, and a means to pay respect and remember the dead. But we can lessen the impact when we’re aware of this side as well.

To Be Green or to Be Practical?

One human composting facility in Washington claimed around 10% of their clients were from California (as of the time of this writing there’s still no human composting service in California.) After the facts, I hope you start to think what’s the cost of transporting the body and family from California to Washington and back.

The distance between California and Washington is around 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers), resulting in a round-trip of 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers). If one cremation uses as much energy as a 500-mile car trip. In their effort to be ‘eco-friendly’, they ended up wasting 4 times more energy than a simple cremation. Is this green? I will let you decide.

After all, the problem is a lot more complex than these simple calculations I’ve made. The real challenges are the public perception, religious faith/beliefs, and local availability of green facilities. We still have to consider the environmental impact of building new facilities, maintaining them, and sourcing the materials necessary for the operation. More research and data are required as we head toward the sustainability of the death care industry.

So, Is It Worth the Effort?

Yes, certainly. Green options will always be better when chosen wisely and appropriately, considering practicality and other surrounding factors.

As Michael J. Coren has put it nicely in his article,

“Ultimately, one eco-friendly burial will not outweigh a lifetime of emissions. So choose a green funeral, if you wish. But from a climate perspective, the way you live will always eclipse what happens after you die.”

One last note

I didn’t expect to come to this conclusion when I started researching. I thought I’d be writing another kind of article. Instead, the process has changed my perspective and made me reconsider my current actions and their impact on the environment today, not after death.

The key point is that a green death doesn’t make enough impact compared to what we are doing on a daily basis. If we want to leave the planet greenly, we must live greener today. Start now, don’t wait.

Only living greenly leads to greenly leaving.

Lastly, the best green burial is the one that resonates most with the deceased and the family, one that aligns with their spiritual beliefs, one that provides comfort for the living during the healing process, one that is practical, and one that respects Mother Earth who makes life possible in the first place.

I hope this has been helpful.

Be kind, be happy.