April 20, 2011 Frostburg State University held an all-day event called Focus Frostburg. Where there were many different speakers holding presentations all around campus on ways to make the environment better or caring for the well being of others suffrage and how we as humans could make things better by adding changes. Dr. Jennifer Flinn one of the speakers on campus this day featured a presentation called Forever Green: Sustainable Burials, which focused on how humans can recycle while dead. Flinn opened up with the facts of how traditional burials cause 827,060 gallons of embalming fluids which are harmful, and 104,272 tons of steel made for caskets and vaults. Traditional funerals also range from 6,000 to 20,000 dollars. The funeral industry makes about 11 billion dollars annually. Natural burials is the more environmental way Flinn explained, there is an alternate method of burial, natural materials used for casket or shroud, natural grave markers, and a GPS to locate the reef. Flinn explained how natural burials eliminate the need for embalming fluids or other preservatives, and caskets are made from biodegradable materials such as recycled paper and alternative fibers. Having a natural burial provides good habitat for native plants and wildlife.
Flinn spoke on the history of natural burials; the movement began in the UK, Carlisle Cemetery in1993, “it started in the United Kingdom with smaller resources,” said Flinn. It is becoming more popular in the United States first starting in Ramsey Creek Preserve in South Carolina in 1998, “increasing in the U.S. and how there are about 40 states that have it in a certain area…. not a new idea just a new version.” The Green Burial Council was founded by Joe and Juliette Sehee in 2005. There are three different types of burial grounds: hybrid, which is a one leaf, a conventional cemetery which “uses natural material and offers a separate area for burial,” Flinn stated. Natural, is a two leaf and “cannot use toxic products,” said Flinn, and conservation which is a three leaf, Flinn stated that it “has land set aside, it has to be set aside for land conservation…provide dual purpose…provide natural space.”
Currently there are no natural sites in Maryland but there are at least three in the eastern shore locations. Flinn gave a website that offers natural burials. Flinn stated that they have a “plan to create a site in Pittsburgh but it’s still in proposed,” but that was a year ago. Other green options are eternal reefs which are mix cremated remains and artificial reefs used to create new marine habitats for fish and creatures. Flinn ended her presentation on an interesting note. Flinn explained how a current natural burial company in Sweden called Promessa processes the corpses. In Promessa they freeze the body in negative 18 Celsius degrees, submerging the body with liquid nitrogen, shocking it with mechanical vibrations, placing it in a vacuum chamber and then putting the remains into a cornstarch coffin.
No comments:
Post a Comment