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When you first learn about green burial, it is natural to wonder what the environmental effects of contemporary funeral industry practices are and how green burial is beneficial to the environment. (Note that we use the term “contemporary” rather than traditional because the modern-day funeral – with a varnished precious wood or metal casket, embalming, burial vault, and marble headstone – has only been practiced since around the time of the American Civil War 150 years ago. Before that, what we now refer to as green burial was simply standard practice and long-standing tradition.)
Environmental effects of contemporary burial: What has come to be known as the American style funeral - with a casket made out precious wood or metal, a vault, large monument, and embalming - is the most resource intensive funeral in the world.
The practice of embalming, started by morticians during the American Civil War, was once foreign to the rest of the world. Other countries such as Australia, the UK, and other parts of Western Europe are now adopting the practice at a growing rate, mainly due to the influence of the American funeral industry. This especially affects funeral directors, and also runs the risk of contaminating groundwater. According to Robert Larkins in his book Funeral Rights, “Formaldehyde is so toxic that its use has been banned in Holland and it is being phased out across the European Union. It is a category 1 carcinogen, up there with dioxin, arsenic and cadmium, and has particularly strong links to lung cancer.” And Mark Harris notes in Grave Matters that "Numerous studies have found that embalmers and funeral directors exhibit a higher incidence of leukemia and cancers of the brain, lung, and colon, as well as a severe and persistent skin condition known as 'embalmer's eczema,' all presumably caused by formaldehyde."
The following statistics represent the materials used annually in American funerals:
- 30-plus million board feet of hardwoods – mostly tropical and precious (used in caskets).
- 2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets).
- Over 100,000 tons of steel (caskets and vaults). This equals enough metal to rebuild the entire Golden Gate Bridge every year!
- 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete (vaults). If you were to lay that concrete down it would be about the length and width of a two-lane highway stretching all the way across the continental US.
- 827,000 gallons of embalming fluid. This is enough formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals used in embalming to fill over one Olympic-size swimming pool every year.
Click here to watch a two-minute interview with Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters, also featuring Mary Woodsen from Greensprings Natural Cemetery. It explains the environmental consequences of contemporary burial, as well as cremation.
Economics: 2.4 million Americans die every year, currently amounting to an annual funeral industry gross of $14 billion. The average American funeral costs between $7,500 and $10,000.
Green burials tend to be less costly, given their relative simplicity. There is no vault or monument to buy, nor embalming to pay for, and the coffins or shrouds used are generally more affordable than coffins used in conventional burials. The price of a grave, including a marker, at a green cemetery ranges from $800 to $3,500 depending on the cemetery. This price however does not include the casket, shroud, or any service outside of the cemetery.
In the United States alone, there are more than 22,000 funeral homes, approximately 115,000 cemeteries, 1,155 crematories, and an estimated 300 casket sellers.
Cremation:
- You could drive a car the distance to the moon and back 163,273 times on the energy used annually for cremations in China, Japan, India, the UK, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand (based on Government statistics 2008).
- You could drive about 4,800 miles on the energy used to cremate one person — and to the moon and back 8,922 times on the energy from all cremations in one year in the US.
- “The cremation process consumes fossil fuels and releases more than 23 million pounds (10.4 million kilograms) of CO2 into the atmosphere annually (as well as a host of toxic pollutants).” -Robert Larkins, Funeral Rights
- During cremation the average person produces about 110lbs (50 kg) of carbon dioxide as the body is heated to 1270˚F (690˚C) for 70 to 90 minutes. -Professor Roger Valentine Short, University of Melbourne, 2007.
- Approximately 37% of American dead currently receive cremation.
- The British Environment Minister estimates that by 2020 crematoriums will be the biggest single contributor to mercury emissions in the UK.
The list of noxious emissions produced by cremation is dizzying. Among the most significant are:
- Carbon Dioxide
- Hydrogen Chloride
- Carbon Monoxide
- Formaldehyde
- Organochlorines
- Dioxins
- Furans
- Mercury
The Green Burial Council (GBC) defines green burial as: “A way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact that furthers legitimate ecological aims such as the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and the restoration and/or preservation of habitat.”
It should be noted that Muslim and Jewish burial practice has always dictated simple, natural burials, preferably without a coffin or vault.
Green burial favors interring the deceased in either cloth shrouds or simple caskets made from sustainable materials such as pine, wicker, seaweed, or wool. Headstones, if used at all, are typically fashioned from native fieldstones and set flat to the ground, and shrubs and trees are sometimes used as well. Bodies are laid to rest in vault-free graves, in a forest or other natural setting, typically legally protected by a deed restriction as a cemetery. Green burial can be used as a conservation tool, enabling the acquisition, restoration, and stewardship of natural areas. There are currently about 34 GBC approved green burial and hybrid (otherwise conventional cemeteries that have green burial sections or allow green options like vault-free burial) cemeteries in the United States. This number is always growing so please go to the provider's page on the GBC website to find a cemetery in your state or country (click here): http://www.greenburialcouncil.
There is also a growing movement in state parks across America to raise revenue to protect and acquire “at-risk” adjoining land from development by allowing the scattering of ashes. This could lead to green burials in state parks and might help to make the protection of thousands of additional acres of natural land economically possible.
Where our film fits into the larger movement: The green burial movement is still in its infancy. There have been many news articles and books written on the subject, but until now, NO feature-length documentary has been made about green burial. People need not only to read about this subject, but to witness exactly what a green burial looks and feels like, and why people are choosing this option – this is where our documentary comes in.
By investing in or donating to our film you will help us to complete our documentary and spread the word and environmental benefits of green burial. If that means that more people choose green burial in the future, then you will have played a part in protecting forests and other habitats and in reducing carbon emissions.
Australia:
The green burial movement in Australia has taken longer to catch on due to higher government regulation. In most states, cemeteries are government owned because they are concerned that a cemetery, once established, is a large long-term investment. Therefore the government is weary of private ownership.
Over the years, the government has built large lawn and monument-heavy cemeteries, usually with a crematorium on the premises. Therefore, they are now committed to maintaining these sites into perpetuity, which means that they - more accurately taxpayers - have to pay for the grounds' maintenance into perpetuity. Due to this long-term investment, the government in Australia, at the moment, has little interest in allowing a private owner to open a green burial cemetery that would be in direct competition with their cemeteries.
Sadly, this predicament stood in the way of Kevin Hartley, a funeral director of over 20 years who wanted to open what would have been Australia's first completely green burial cemetery in South Australia. He chose a site and had a surveyor write a highly detailed environmental report on the land: he then knew exactly where the ground water flowed, and therefore where the burials could take place (so there would be no concern of groundwater contamination). He even had aerial photos from the 1940’s that showed the vegetation on the site, compared to now, so that they could endeavor to restore the area. He sent this proposal to the local government, who sent it to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the EPA sent him an email back. They asked Kevin to answer six questions, all of which were covered in his proposal had they taken the time to read it. Before Kevin had a chance to reply, the EPA sent a one-line email explaining that they would not be approving his plan. Their reason was that planting of more trees in this area would carry a fire risk because trees transmit fire. “If this is the case,” says Kevin, “then why don’t we just deforest all of South Australia?”
There has been one success story in Australia however! After an application process to the government, that lasted over 20 years, an organization called Upright Burials was granted approval to open an out-of-the-ordinary natural burial ground in Derrinallum, Victoria. The difference in this case is that the land had to become Crown land. Their plan was to bury bodies vertically making it the first burial ground of it's kind in the world. Their reason for wanting to bury upright was simple: as a group of local farmers they wanted to offer a more sustainable and economically practical option of burial in their community to what was currently available. Plus, some of the proceeds would go towards reforesting Mount Elephant, which is visible from the site. Their first burial took place in 2010.
On the north-east coast of Australia there is also a lot going on in terms of natural death and dying. For over 15 years in Byron Bay, Zenith Virago, a marriage and a funeral celebrant, has been assisting people to be more involved, empowered and fulfilled around death and dying. Byron Bay is also home to one of the nation's first hybrid natural burial grounds, which helps to protect a valuable koala migratory corridor.
Other facts about the Australian funeral industry:
- 25-99 year grave tenures: You should know that a burial plot in an Australian cemetery does not last forever. In most cemeteries they have what is called grave tenure. After between 25 to 99 years if the deceased’s family does not renegotiate a sole use of the plot, the deceased body will be lifted and lowered deeper under the ground and a new grave will be placed on top. Some look at this as an eco-option of grave recycling.
- In Australia in the past ten years the embalming rate has gone up from 1/3 to 2/3. This is due to American Funeral Corporations, Service Corp. International and Stewart Enterprises buying up local businesses and influencing modern American death care practices. (Australian Ways of Death, Patricia Jalland)
- In Australia, the two most popular items placed in coffins are the TV remote control and mobile phones. (Funeral Rights, Robert Larkins)
- “Unembalmed bodies go on view throughout Australia on a daily basis. If you are going to have a viewing, you should at least be aware that you have a real choice... Pope John Paul II was not embalmed when his body lay in state in St Peter’s Basilica for three days.” (Funeral Rights, Robert Larkins)
United Kingdom:
We would like to acknowledge the UK for being one of the pioneers of the natural burial movement. Their first natural burial ground was opened in 1993. Now, there are hundreds of natural burial grounds in the UK. The difference between the UK and America however, is that there is far less land in the UK, and therefore the conservation aspect of green burial is much more difficult. In America you can have green burial grounds that protect hundreds of acres of adjacent natural area, whereas in the UK the sites are much smaller.
The Natural Death Centre in the U.K. was not established for environmental reasons. Their mission was to empower and to help people "face death on their own terms without the interception or mediation of others." They also state that they have "long running links with environmental funerals, we are not a green pressure group, but a movement for social change."
For more information and a complete list of providers in the U.K. visit the Natural Death Centre's website: www.naturaldeath.org.uk
By donating to our film you will help us to complete our documentary and spread the word about the environmental benefits of green burial. If that means that more people choose green burial in the future then you will have had a part in protecting forests, animal habitats, and reducing carbon emissions. To go to our donate page click here.
If you would like to invest in our film rather than donate please contact producer Amy Browne at amybrowne1@gmail.com or call her on 646-289-2734.
To make a NON-tax deductible quick and easy PAYPAL donation to our documentary click here:
To make a tax-deductible donation to our feature-length film on green burials read the instructions below:
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Australia
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Related Web Links:
America:
Green Burial Council
- for a full list of Green Burial Council approved providers (click here)
Grave Matters, by Mark Harris
Memorial Ecosystems
Australia:
Natural Death Centre Australia
Green Cemeteries Australia
Funeral Rights, by Robert Larkins
U.K.:
Natural Death Centre U.K.
World-wide:
Wikipedia on Natural Burial