By Mike Marino Dust in the wind is more than just lyrics to a song from a 1970's stadium band. Instead, it aptly describes the sum total end result of the day to day, dust to dust, cyclical yin and yang of life and death of animate beings. Yes, that includes you oh mighty human, as well as other plants, animals, insects, and even those composed of one tiny infinetestimal miniscule cell. Hate to break it to you amigos' y amiga's, but we are but mere mortals and not immortal gods and goddesses perched high on golden celestial pedestals. We don't live forever in blissful galactic orbit, but, we do, like all stars in the galaxy, fade and die..finis! No one gets out of here alive!
The Green Machine human being strives for green karma on a daily basis. Organic gardens just outside the kitchen window, energy conservation in the home, and in the arena of transportation, the use of hybrids or alternative fuel vehicles. Then there are those like me who opt for a mountain bike for the daily mode of transportation for work and play, weather permiting of course. To live the green life, is to live the good life, but, is it possible, just possible, that when the end comes a knockin' at the door, that we go out in a simple shroud with a shred of dignity? Youbetcha!.
In Louisiana, the band plays on. "Saints Go Marching In" rings out as the funeral procession proceeds down streets linws on either side with a phalanx of filigreed balconies. The music has a cadence and lively beat that lifts the Cajun spirit to defy the dread of death. In fact, it's a celebration with a tongue in cheek wink in it's eye, but, elsewhere, funerals are a somber affair with dirges dredging up a portrait of stoic sobriety, and the bereaved, now bereft of a love one, realize the "Bringin' in the Sheaves" finality they are faced with.
.A river of tears flow for what appears to be an eternity, everyone talks in a whisper and the jungle of lillies festooning the chapel resemble an endangered rain forest, save for the monkeys and snakes and spiders. The open casket is showcased on raised platform and the dearly departed is merely reposed and posed in his or her Sunday best as the main feature attraction..the viewing. "He looks so natural, at least for a dead guy" and other frivolities are tossed about like candy spraying in all directions from a pinata as condolences. How much formaldehyde to the gallan does a body take to keep up it's decaying appearances? How much glue in that coffin? Polish? Metal for handles? By the way, what type of wood was used in it's construction? A rainforest tree from Malay you say? How bio-degradable is all this, or isn't all this? Don't forget to add in the ongoing cost of cemetary maintenence, pesticides and fertilizer to keep the grounds grass as green, (and as useless) as a golf course in Monterey.
Green burial is not new. Druids did it, Jesus did it, and lets face it, it's downright kosher! Natural burial appeals to many different people and faiths. Jewish burial requires that the body be buried within 48 hours of death, without any embalming fluids in a simple pine box. Orthodox Christianity also mandates burial in a simple box with no metal. It was because of religion afterall that funerals took on a ceremonial nature as a prelude to the gateway to whatever great beyond the believers believed in. Inject science into the mix, and it's merry cornucopia of chemical concoctions, and voila! You can dress and preserve the dead as though they were ready to appear at opening night on Broadway, giving their ghastly regards.
Eco-burial, or green burial, or whatever you want to call it got it's modern age start in the UK at a place with the very British sounding name of Carlisle Cemetery. It was the first of it's new era kind opening for business in 1993. Originally called a "woodland burial" it set the standard for eco-cemeteries world wide. Simply put, the eco-burial is designed for the dead to decompose and become one with it's own environment without adding pollutants and non-biodegradable materials to Mother Natures Earth-body. Today in the UK there has been an explosion in the creation of other natural burial sites, and now can claim in excess of 200 of them.
The Druid influence of nature quickly crossed the Atlantic and by 1998, South Carolina became, in it's true pioneer spirit, the site of the first eco-cemetary, (Americanized to "green cemetary") in North America. Called the Ramsey Creek Preserve it stands fast to it's beliefs of banning the embalming procedure, just saying "No" to heavy metals, and no, to the use of sky-high headstones that seem tall enough to pierce the stratosphere, high enough in fact to tempt even King Kong himself to climb aboard. It was designed to be the ecological and inexpensive alternative to the costly platinum card Warren Buffet burial practices that siphon the bank account dry. Who says you can't take it with you, eh?
Kimberly Caldwell of Ramsey Creek explains the philosophy of the preserve. "Natural burial is thousands of years old, and most of the world today, still does not embalm the deceased. In the UK, it was a matter of small plots and based on home burials. It used to be in the United States, you buried your family members on your own land in private cemetaries, or in the cemeteries next to the churches, but the new churches don't build cemeteries anymore," she said. "In our system at the preserve we're really all about natural burial as a means to save land and conservation, stewardship. The demand for this type of burial is growing with new awareness everyday. We currently have 150 buried here, with another 500 that have pre-purchesed plots. We have 36 acres and will be adding another 38 with an option on an additional 20 acres. In total we should be able to handle up to 1,500 burials,"
On the other side of the continental U.S., the Pacific Northwest is fertile green grounds for eco-burials, and the White Eagle Memorial Preserve, located near Goldendale in the bosom of the Horse Heaven Hills, is not far from the spiritual waters of the Columbia River Gorge in eastern Washington. White Eagle is in the vanguard of the green burial movement in the west. Daniel Dancer, general manager of the preserve says they adhere to strict guidelines to preserve the purity of natural burial. "We don't accept bodies that have been embalmed. That is priority. As for caskets, if one is desired, they have to be biodegradable. No question about that, and they can be made from cardboord or if from wood, we prefer that it be constructed from locally harvested wood. We also do not allow concrete vaults or graveliners either," said Dancer, "If a person prefers a shroud, that too should be biodegradable."
Looking at the burial process, and taking it apart one piece of the deceased puzzle at a time, it's easy to strip away the charade of the funery facade. Embalming, for example. It is a great word, and a practice that has been accepted as part and parcel of the bereavement package which cranks out funerals with the efficiency of a fast food restaurant. Mainly used to catch the lifelike likeness of the deceased as he or she lies in state in their coffin as the masses file past for one last hurrah. Behind the scenes, however, the body is still slowly decomposing. Embalming encourages the retardation of human decomposition, and therefore is in direct conflict with the objectives of green burial practices.
The fact of the death matter is this. There is not one law on the books, federal or state, that requires a body to be embalmed. The most commonly used embalming fluid is formaldehyde. It is somewhat biodegradable, but it does oxidize at one point into formic acid, the very same toxin found in those pesky bee stings, as well as fire ants, and thus introduces a toxic pollutant into the soil as the decaying body begins it's traverse from dust to dust. In "green death", the body is sans chemical preservatives, and instead is buried in a bio-degradable coffin (cardboard or simple pinebox) or without a casket at all, and laid to rest dressed only in a simple shroud. Eventually, in this manner, nature, in due time, will reclaim her own.
Some caskets can be as large as the Nimitz aircraft carrier to carry you across the River Jordan. They come in all sizes, shapes and costs to meet (and sometimes exceed) budgetary constraints. You can go the full nine yards or the platinum deluxe Lincoln Continental route, with a casket replete with fancy brass fixtures, laminated portraits of John Wayne circling the casket like so many wagons in a train preparing for an attack by hostiles and shell out the cost of a new Mercedes to be laid to rest in. The basic components of a casket consists of chipboard covered in a thin veneer with handles made of brass and plastic to resemble brass. All that chipboard requires glue to hold it together like planets in orbit in the solar system, and some glues do use formaldehyde, our old nemesis, although to be fair, not all glues use formaldehyde in produced wood products.
The wood used in caskets, are often made from exotic and in some cases, endangered wood species and designed, believe it or not, to prevent the inevitable decomposition. You can use environmentally friendly coffins made from cardbord, simple pine, or wicker, but the simple shroud is the most natural, and most cost effective way to go when traveling six feet under on your way to the great beyond. I've seen some simple, yet decorative wicker caskets, made from hand woven grasses in the $400 dollar range.
Cynthia Beal, owner of the Natural Burial Company in Eugene, Oregon has a veritable verifiable green showroom of caskets and baskets, including, the Ecopod. "The Ecopod is the most earth friendly," she said. "It's made by hand from recycled newspaper, that is pulped in a WWII era mechanical dough mixer. Then it's covered in handmade paper of recycled silk and sustainably harvested mulberry bark. It is expensive, though, as it is a sculpture and is shipped from England."
"Then there is Our Casket (tm) and it is way cool too. It's made by machine, but from secondary wood product plywood that rapidly bio-degrades. It ships flat, has no metal, slides together in less than five minutes and it's transportation footprint is one-fifth to one-eighth of a regular coffin, and is designed for cremation and for natural burial. It's inexpensive and sensible<" explained Beal. They also have caskets made from willow.
"Woven willow is amazing. It's a renewable perennial that can be harvested annually for 50 years, and cultivated on marginal agricultural land while providing hedgerow habitat for farmers fields. Willow also breaks down in months, rather than the years it takes a wood coffin to do. Of course, the weaving arts are important to keep alive, as we will need these skills when we stop making bags and baskets out of plastics."
If you are a fan of statistics, try these on for size from the Casket and Funeral Association of America, the Cremation Association of North America, and the Rainforest Action Network. In the 22,500 traditional cemeteries in the United States, each year they bury approximately, 30 million board feet of hardwood, 90,272 tons of steel, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze all just from caskets. In addition, they also use 14,000 tons of steel, 1,636,000 tones of reinforced concrete in vaults, and formaldehyde? Try this figure...827,060 gallons of embalming fluid, most of which use formaldehyde. That's a lot of trash for Mother Earth to swallow.
The traditional headstone. is an eco-no-no in green burial. Green grave markings are designed to blend in with the natural surroundings, rather then compete with it. Markers can be simple shrubs, grasses, herbs, plants or trees or a simple flat indigenous engraved stone. If you think one tree looks like another tree which would make locating a loved ones grave hard to do, fear not. At White Eagle Memorial Preserve they have a specialized grid system for location of the a loved ones burial site that does not interfere with the naturalness of the preserves setting. "If someone chooses to use a marker, it must be an indigenous stone and in geologic harmony with the site," explained Dancer. Although stones can be brought in from the outside, they must first be approved by the White Eagle staff before placement, and in all cases they prefer that you use flat stones and no bigger than any stone within 50 feet of the burial site. The planting of trees and shrubs for a marker also establishes a living memorial and creates wildlife habitat at the same time. Life and death, arm in arm, the beat goes on.
Another big concern in green burial, is the abundant use of water to keep the cemetary lush and plush. Water, water everywhere, but for how long? Water conservation is high atop the credo of green. It is essential to life, yes, but, in green cemeteries, irrigation is not used. It is wasteful when it comes to grooming graveyards and golf courses. Thank God, indoor sports stadiums use astro-turf! Another missing element in green graveyards is the use of pesticides and herbicides which furthers the practice of a soils microbial genocide.
Current cemetary legislation protects natural burial preserves from future development, while the establishment of a conservation easement prevents future owners from altering the original intent of these types of burial grounds. There are watchdog agencies looking out for the future of the green burial industry, and to help keep the nature equation alive and well in these green burial gardens of Eco-Eden. The group is called the Green Burial Council, a non-profit, that encourages sustainability in the death care industry and to use the burial process as a means of facilitating ecological restoration. They recently published the nations first certifiable green standards for cemeteries, funeral providers and cremation facilities. Conventional funeral providers now in eight states will be offering Green Burial Council approved packages, providing a way for consumers to identify death care professionals willing to assist them with environmentally conscious end-of-life rituals.
Northern California has led the charge of many movements. The Beat Generation in North Beach, the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, and of course the tie-dyed Sixties in Haight Ashbury. Just north of San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge, nestled in Marin County is the Fernwood Cemetary. No tombstones, no caskets. Bodies are buried in a manner to foster natural decomposition, and visitors can locate loved ones beneath the ground using a high tech GPS locator. In addition to green burial, there is also the option of cremation. Many are opting for this practice, and nationally, 40% of Americans request to be cremated at death. In Marin County according to Mortuary Managment Magazine, that figure is 80%.
What about green burial for veterans in government run Vet Cemeteries? You can in essence get close to having a green burial, but as with all things military, it is more of a camo or khaki-green burial. Veterans benefits allow for a free burial plot in VA administered cemeteries, but according to Richard Cesler from the Department of Veterans Affairs, VA cemetery regulations are the key. "A person can be interred in what we call, an air-tray, which is a cardboard tray that rapidly deteriorates in-ground, even when using a concrete vault. It does have a plywood base that allows us to remove the body if needed," said Cesler. But can a deceased vet be buried in a shroud?
Cesler explained. "A simple shroud can't be used, due to the lowering to a double vault depth and the body not having sufficient support for lowereing the body. All full body placements have to be in a concrete vault." Although green burials are growing in popularity, services are still from priivate funeral homes and cemetaries and is a new concern and request for veterans burials that the VA is trying to address.
"We can accomodate and do try to make sure that our families requests are considered, but, we must absolutely abide by the Feds rules," explained Cesler. The second concern for us is re-internment. For us to use green standards, and there is a request for removal, it becomes impossible for that recovery without some substantial support for the body. It is like removing a gelatinous mass."
There are some concessions to green wishes. "We do allow for homemade caskets. We have a set of plans we can send out, and we do have several important criteria that has to be met before we allow acceptance of homemade caskets," said Cesler. If you are vet interested in a green burial contact the VA website at: www.va.gov.
And pets? Some preserves have sections for the green burial of cats, dogs, birds, and probably fish too if that is the family favorite. The concept of nature at it's natural pets best however is at the White Eagle Preserve. They do have special pet plots, but they also encourage the placement of pets who have died of natural causes to be placed on the edge of Rock Creek Canyon in the preserve to allow it to be consumed by the wild creatures of the area where in death, they can do, as we do as fellow living beings, at the end of our life cycle, help preserve the ongoing life cycle of the wilderness and the planet we inhabit.
Breaking it down, roughly, at Ramsey Creek, you can get a basic green burial, which includes site, for around $1,950, bearing in mind that there is a $250-$500 opening and closing fee for the grave with the grave marker costing $25, with engraving running anywhere from $125 to $300. At the low end you would pay $2,350 at Ramsey Creek to $2,770 on the high end. White Eagle Preserve charges $2,200 for the gravesite, along with a 10% surcharge for the Endowment Fund ($220). In addition there is a $600 fee for opening and closing the grave for a total of $3,020. The above costs do not include any mortuary costs or transportation.
As a comparison, a non-green basic burial at a local traditional cemetery in Washington's Wine Country, you can get a gravesite for $650 with open and closing fee's of $600 and an additional $550 for the liner. A basic headstone will run $645 along with a setting fee of $250. This is a non-green basic burial and it totals out, minus mortuary charges, at $1,845.65 with tax. You know what they say about death and taxes. To sum it up from a cost standpoint, green or non-green, a burial on the cheap will cost roughly between $1,800 to $3,000 not counting the mortuary charges, the cost of casket or shroud.
If your looking to dig up more information on green burial cemeteries, procedures, caskets, shrounds, and contacts visit the Green Burial Council online at www.greenburialcouncil.org, the Ramsey Creek Preserve at www.ramseycreekpreserve.com or the White Eagle Preserve at www.naturalburialground.com.
Live green, die green. It's the smart choice to make as you take that final step to the great beyond, that even in death, you're doing your part to sustain life and contribute to the ecological well being of Mother Earth for the sake of her children, and yours.