Green After Death

By Michelle Queen

       
      Looking at the photo to the left, what place would you think that is a picture of? A forest? A park? None of the above.

Attending the Focus Frostburg event, Forever Green: Sustainable Burials, hosted by Dr. Flinn of the psychology department, the tiny but packed conference room of students learned about "green burials." Yes, the picture above is example of an actual green cemetery, not the first image that pops up when thinking of a cemetery huh? And this is nothing new, "just an old idea in new packaging," states Dr. Flinn. What it takes to be considered buried naturally is all plant-based natural materials: meaning biodegradable wood/wicker/pod caskets and a natural sort of embalming process where the body is frozen. Sustainable burials sites or preserves also have natural grave markers like rocks or trees, and the visiting family is given a GPS to locate the burial site while walking through a scenic "forest" trail. The journey to locate the site is often symbolic and reflective.

"We don't usually think about being green after we're gone," stated Dr. Flinn commanding the slideshow, and she showed the audience the direct effect of the unconscious environmental costs of traditional burials and even cremations. According to her research, annually when people are buried 827,600 gallons of embalming fluid seeps into the ground along with 100,000 tons of steel, 5.4 million pounds of copper casket lining, and 30 million feet of hard wood! So, cremations are better for the environment right? Wrong. 30-40% of people choose the cremation route, but little do they know that it often creates airborne toxins and enough fossil fuel in a year to "travel to the moon 84 times and back," stated Dr. Flinn. Plus financially traditional burials cost 6,000 to 20,000 dollars, while natural burials cost much less.

The green burial movement began in the U.K with the Carlisle Cemetery in 1993. It was the first cemetery solely dedicated to natural green burials and now there are over 200 in the U.K.  The first site in the U.S was Ramsey Creek Preserve in North Carolina, opening in 1996. There is actually a rating system (the leaf scale) which approves which sites are considered a green burial environment. 1 leaf is considered hybrid: basically a regular cemetery with a green section. 2 leaf is an all natural burial site with natural plant derived materials. 3 leaf is the same as the 2 leaf, but these sites are protected under preservation laws never to be torn down. So far in the U.S there are only 11 states with natural burial sites, the closest is Penn Forest Natural Burial Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The biggest problems people think of with natural burials is the ceremony not being as special and in basic terms, the smell. Natural burial site ceremonies are generally the same as traditional ceremonies, with all decisions up to the family, and it is still possible to view the body. The smell factor, "we've all walked through wooded areas and have we ever really smelled any decomposing animals," Dr. Flinn stated sarcastically. When a person is buried in a natural cemetery, they are buried deep enough so it will not smell bad and shallow enough so the decomposition process can take place. During a clip shown from the Penn Forest Natural Burial Park (http://pennforestcemetery.com), a woman stated "someday I'll be a part of all this," she said while the camera panned to the flora surrounding her. That feeling resonates, the feeling of giving even after you are gone.

If you want to learn even more about green burials visit www.greenburialcouncil.org