Green Burials

English: Green Lane Burial Field. This non-denominational green burial ground was opened in April 2004.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ben Franklin said, “The only thing certain is death and taxes.”  You can pay taxes on-line and save paper, making it greener, but how about green burials?

Writing about burials is a morbid topic, but a fact of life and a subject we don’t usually think about in terms of going green. There is a movement afoot called Green or Natural Burials where the interment of bodies is done in a an affordable bio-degradable casket such as recycled cardboard, recycled newspaper, or bamboo, or simply covered with a shroud or favorite blanket and then buried in a site as natural as possible.  No embalming fluid is used or concrete vault.  During embalming, bodies are injected with formaldehyde (listed by the EPA as a “probable human carcinogen”), more than 5,300,000 gallons of which are lowered into US soil each year.  Concrete is one of the most energy-intensive industrial materials.  According to Joe Sehee, executive director of the Green Burial Council, “We bury enough embalming fluid to fill eight Olympic-size swimming pools, enough metal to build the Golden Gate Bridge, and so much reinforced concrete in burial vaults that we could build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit.”  Natural burials are clearly a greener and cheaper alternative.

A green burial is also an alternative to cremation, which many families choose because it is less expensive and thought to be more environmentally friendly. Though fewer materials are used in the making of an urn than a casket,   (some companies now offer biodegradable urns), a single cremation requires that a furnace run at about 1800 degrees for two to three hours producing about 880 pounds of carbon dioxide.  In terms of carbon emissions, one cremation equals 500 miles in a car.   Additionally, mercury tooth fillings that aren’t removed may leach toxic mercury into the air.

It’s encouraging to watch the green movement grow to even include our return to the earth done in a gentle, natural way with little impact.  For information on green cemeteries, go to greenburials.org.

Information compiled from NPR.org, “Burials and Cemeteries Go Green” by Cheryl Corley, greenburials.org, and “The Green Reaper”, by Sarah Murray, Wholeliving.com, June 2012 

 

 

 

 

SURPRISING GREEN THINGS

 Without even trying, you’ll surprise yourself with the green things you are already doing.   For instance, do you have a smart phone?  Instead of buying a camera, a phone, a GPS, a tablet computer, a music player, and even a pedometer, your Smartphone is all of those things.  With a Smartphone you only have to buy one device, eliminating the manufacturing waste and e-waste disposal for several different devices.  With all the apps you can now download, your phone can do just about anything you want it to!  And, if you charge your phone with a solar charger, which are getting better all the time, you will really be going green with your phone!

If you have switched your light bulbs to energy-efficient CFLs, you are probably seeing considerable savings on your electric bill.  If you have added extra insulation to your home, you have probably noticed a drop in your heating bill.  This is a form of “green investing” – the return is immediate and probably greater than investing in a utility company.  Of course I’m also all for investing in companies that are doing the right thing for the earth and people, or socially responsible investing, but start your green investing at home first.   (Check out slowmoney.org for investment opportunities within 50 miles where you live that aim to fix the economy from the ground up starting with food entrepreneurs.)

Do you realize the houseplants you decorate your house with not only give off oxygen and filter carbon dioxide, but some plants also actually absorb indoor toxins?  Houseplants are nature’s air purifier. Click here for a list of the plants that best absorb toxins.

Every time you take the stairs instead of an elevator or an escalator, every time you air dry your clothes or turn off the lights when you leave a room, you conserve energy.  When you turn the water off brushing your teeth or run the dishwasher only when full, you save water.

These simple acts all make a difference.  Keep going – add new “green” things daily to your life.

Some information compiled from Green Living, editors of The Environmental Magazine and  green.life@sierraclub.org.