What burial is the greenest and environmentally friendly?

When an animal dies in the wild, its body is returned to the soil. In my opinion, our burial practices ought to keep that cycle in place. Burial quilts made of all-natural fibers, shrouds, unvarnished pine-box caskets, mushroom coffins, and more, all allow the borrowed elements of our bodies to return to the earth to create new life. Methods that seal off the organic material of our bodies and thus lock it out of the natural decomposition/composition life cycle cannot be deemed green. This would include burial in highly-varnished metal and wood caskets that are often covered in waterproof concrete vaults. Even cremation looks less environmentally friendly when one considers the vast amount of energy it takes to generate enough heat to reduce a body to ashes.

Making decisions about end-of-life care is a deeply personal subject. If you’d like to talk more about burial quilts, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to email me.

Photo Credit: Lisa J. Whitmer