Forever Green- Sustainable Burials

By Sara Maricle

"People do not tend to think about their burials" mentioned Dr. Flinn, psychology professor at Frostburg State University during her presentation for Focus Frostburg on April 20, 2011. Every year, Frostburg State University holds Focus Frostburg, a day of learning about sustainability and climate awareness. Throughout the day, there are presentations and displays based around sustainability and climate open to the college and the public.

At 3pm on April 20, 2011, Lane Center 244 filled with students, faculty and community members to hear Dr. Flinn's presentation "Forever Green- Sustainable Burials". Dr. Flinn started out the presentation with the shocking statistics about traditional funerals, such as a traditional funeral can range from $6,000 to $20,000 and more than 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid is used yearly. Then she introduced a new concept, green burials.

Green burials involve not using chemicals during the burial process, which harms the environment, and not using non-natural resources during the burial process. "The primary focus is the elimination of non-natural resources" said Dr. Flinn. In a traditional funeral/burial, caskets are made out of wood, most of the time tropical wood. "We are cutting down millions and millions of trees to be seen for a few hours and then buried under the ground" pointed out Dr. Flinn. With green burials, no chemicals are used in the burial process and caskets are made out of biodegradable materials. In addition, natural markers are used to mark the grave sites, such as field stones or a tree instead of headstone. Dr. Flinn mentioned that this also allows for the area to be not only allowed to be used as a cemetery but also as a preserve.

In addition to the green burials, Dr. Flinn pointed out other was for sustainable burials. One ways is eternal reefs. A deceased person's ashes are mixed into special cement and molded into a ball to be placed into the ocean. The balls then are the bases that help create reefs, natural habits for fish and sea creatures. Promessa, a Swedish company, has another green option. The bodies are frozen at -18 degrees and then place into liquid nitrogen. Then the body is submitted to mechanical vibrations, breaking the frozen body into powder. All metals are then removed and the remains are placed in a cornstarch container. The cornstarch container can then is buried and help a tree, bush, or something grow.

Dr. Flinn also made a point of saying that green burials are generally less expensive than traditional burials, usually between $200 and $2000. So not only are green burials better for the environment and for the earth, they are also better for your wallet as well. Dr. Flinn raised an interesting question during her presentation, "Why not give back to the environment after death?"