Green Burials and Cremations

Unlike other living creatures on this earth, humans treat dying as a solemn rite of passage.  Many of us bury our dead with a ceremony, and many of us believe in an afterlife. 

This idea is reflected upon in the Green Cemetery Initiative, a nonprofit trust in rural central Massachusetts.  The main idea motivating the Green Cemetery Initiative is that instead of caring so much about preserving our own dead bodies, why not care more about preserving the natural environment—“the unspoiled beauty of God’s creation.”  According to the Green Burial of Massachusetts, a partner with the trust, “Each year we bury approximately 827,060 gallons of toxic embalming fluid, 104,272 tons of steel, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, 30-plus million board feet of hardwood, and 1,636 tons of reinforced concrete.” 

The key feature of the initiative is that the deceased would be buried in biodegradable coffins, without embalming fluids and concrete fortresses.  Engraved organic flagstones would serve as grave markers. 

See Michael Guillen, Final Gestures, U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 28, 2015.