Green burial

[Alice In TX/MO]

This topic came up on another thread, and I didn't want to hijack it. The concept of home burial and no embalming is something my SO and I have been talking about for years.

I hadn't heard the concept called a greed burial before. What we did in Mom's situation two and a half years ago would qualify, I think. No embalming. Wooden casket. No vault. Mom will become the earth. It's a nice thought.

http://www.greenburials.org/

[MTplainsman]

Well all natural burials are tricky if not impossible these days due to so many regulatins. My Dad's best friend was an old rancher. He finally died of a long battle, and after the coroner made a visit, his wife dressed him in his favorite flannel shirt and his favorite boots. She then called my Dad and three others to have them go dig a grave up on a huge bluff over looking a strip of badlands in his favorite pasture. She wanted to wrap him in a blanket and bury him on the bluff and mark his grave with nothing more than some old weathered boards from a homestead, with barb wire and his brand on it. Well it happened to be the nastiest day of the whole month and the men dug out the grave in the horrible weather and was ready to pack him hundreds of yards up the bluff. The coroner had called the widow and said he must be buried in at least a pine box or a body bag, but not just a blanket itself. So with the bad weather and unprepared body, they had to just bite thier tongues and bury him in a bag.

I was to do something similar with my Dad, as he wanted to just be buried in the hills. He just wanted a pine box and nothing more. I wanted to keep him unembalmed and get him to the hills quickly, but long story short, there was no time for me to make that pine box with our brand all over it. Before I could carry out what I wanted to do, other family had different plans and he ended up in a modern coffin and in a plot by his folks.

P.S. Though my Dad's old friend ended up in a bag, his bluff is now a landmark in our two county area. "Calvin's Bluff"

[Jen H]

My MIL was cremated. Her remains were placed in a pretty cardboard box and buried in a spot on our land. We planted a pink flowering dogwood over her.

That's the same thing I want done with my body when I'm finished with it. Let it nourish the ground that nourished me when I was alive.

[woodsrunner]

I've always said just dig a hole and plant an oak tree in the top half to mark the spot. Plant me in the bottom half and I'll feed the oak tree. By the time that tree dies,nobody will be around that cares I was there or not.

I had a grand uncle that wanted to be cremated, so his ashes could go in his wifes casket when she died, that way they could share a final bed for eternity. Since meeting Pelenaka, this sounds like a good idea to me.

[quadcam79]

Yeh I could see the EPA all over it *rollin eyes*

however my grandfather was creamated and his ashes were buried in the woods between my dad and uncles property, which was originally a small portion of my grandfathers 200 or so acres, so technically he was buried on his own land

[HermitJohn]

As romantic as it sounds, long time before a body buried deep nourishes anything. The living layer of ground is usually in the top foot of soil where rotting organic matter usually is. Only some deep plant tap roots looking for water go much below that.

Pumping bunch chemicals into a corpse and burying it in a sealed box is really a crime against nature. Eventually the box leaks and those nice chemicals leach into the ground water. Graveyards really have become a toxical waste dump and we will eventually pay the price as a society. About the closest to natural body disposal that is legal anymore is cremation and even then those that profit from death want to require use of their toxic chemicals before cremation and try to sell a furniture grade box to burn along with the body. Isnt greed wonderful? If you want cremation without the extra profit margin built in, look for a non-profit funeral society in your area and join. If you can still legally be buried privately and naturally in your area, more power to you.

I'd rather be propped up under a tree somewhere deep in woods, but even if there was somebody willing to do it, I can understand why with the current excessive human population that this is impractical. Cant have millions of corpses laying about in various state of decay. Though in healthy ecosystem, bodies recycle rather rapidly when left on the surface. Think of all the road kill out there and how fast it disappears. Nature when left to own devices is quite efficient.

[Liese]

Don't remember the name of the organization, but she also wrote a book about your rights about burials. My library has a copy that I read last year and it would seem that we don't always get correct info from either local gov't people or those invovled in the funeral business. A few years ago a English woman told me green burials were being promoted over there and that you could pick the tree species too, hopefully it'll catch on here. It seems burial practices are also quite regional - in this area embalming seems to be still going strong. This info is from our first real estate agent who was formerly in the funeral trade - we sure had some interesting conversations in the car as we drove around looking at land ...

[newfieannie]

to tell you the truth I still have my first husband hanging around in a can. whenever i move he goes with me. just can't bear to part with him. maybe I'll just wait until I'm gone and my son can mix us together.then he can do what he like with us. ...Georgia.

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by newfieannie

to tell you the truth I still have my first husband hanging around in a can. whenever i move he goes with me. just can't bear to part with him. maybe I'll just wait until I'm gone and my son can mix us together.then he can do what he like with us. ...Georgia.

You sound like my mother. Mom, has Dad's ashes in an urn placed on her chest of drawers. Next to Dad's ashes is a second urn...an empty urn.

[Fae]

I talked to the director of the funeral home we have always used for our family and he said I could be buried in a pine box without being embalmed but it had to be done within 24 hours. I don't see a problem with that since i'll be dead. I think it is a sin against nature(my opinion) to put all those toxic waste into the earth. I also don't see the point in spending thousands of dollars for a fancy coffin to put in the ground.

[Smallhold]

Couldn't agree more! In this country we rent a plot for burial and often after 10 or 20 years the lease runs out. Remains are dug up an thrown in the pit.
Often those working there find remains that look disturbingly fresh, as in not even half decayed.
So I've told my family I do want to be buried but only in a plot that's be ours forever. If not possible, to the flames it is.
And in either a linen shroud, to be embroided by yours truly in years to come or recycled cardboard box.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Funeral homes, vampires they are...

[genericmail]

I thought this was interesting:

http://www.funerals.org/aboutus.htm

[Marilyn]

Smallhold: a leased burial plot? Where do you live? I am very curious.

[minnikin1]

If you have enough land, it might not be hard to put a family cemetery on it. Even here in ultra regulated ny, it's possible in a lot of communities.

The Green cemeteries that are popping up are very interesting.
It's set up like a park, so it's dual purpose land. Folks can use it for enjoying nature. Gravesites are off the beaten path and are not marked with typical headstones, so it doesn't have a spooky or gory look about it.

I think it's a lovely idea. You don't even need a box. You could buried in a woven basket or even a silk shroud.
Maybe even wrapped in your favorite blanket.. as long as it's made of biodegradeable materials.

[Smallhold]

Originally Posted by Marilyn

Smallhold: a leased burial plot? Where do you live? I am very curious.

Marilyn, I live in the Netherlands (no pun intended to this thread). Older cemeteries contain graves where people have bought familyplots where members of a family can be added. But they are harder to find and expensive to come by. Bought plots are not cleared.
Being buried in your own ground is not allowed, not even scattering ashes after cremation is free at any place. Though I've given instructions to have possible ashes scattered on the heathland where I walk my dog every morning.
So what the usual thing is when someone dies, a plot is leased or rented at a cemetery for 10 years. After that the famiy is given a chance to renew the contract. If the family no longer cares or cannot afford to, a grave is "cleaned" away. I find this habit disgusting now but as I didn't know better I used to accept it as the norm when young.
Only after travelling and seeing different cultures I understood more.

Early this year a documentary about the practice was shown on tv and people got upset. It showed a shodded foot and leg covered by a dress sticking out of the pit.
Enbalming really works!
Very overcrowded country with not enough room....

[Belleweather]

First, embalming and being buried in a furniture-quality box is NOT NOT NOT required anywhere in the US, at least not by law. NOT NOT NOT. Funeral directors will tell you that in an attempt to sell you embalming services (which, by the way, is illegal for them to do, but yeah... that doesn't really stop them) and enough people have been told that that it's become a bit of an urban legand.

Now... that doesn't mean your cemetery can't require it. Or that the funeral home can't be a right you-know-what to you if you don't take advantage of their 'services', and refuse to let you be buried more than 24 hours after death or try to charge you out the rear for 'refrigeration' services. But it's not a LEGAL requirement... just some business people being jerks. You still have the right to act as your own 'funeral parlor' and prepare your loved one's bodies yourself, and to be buried in nothing but what you came into the world in, so long as you can find a cemetery or rural land that permits it. You'd just better not expect any help or cooperation from your county coroner or any funeral home in the state, since the popularity of green burials, home care for the deceased, and cremation is cutting WAY into their business model. Cry me a river, right?

[PineRidge]

I plan on being burried at home, hopefully with an apple or dogwood tree planted over me. The only regulations here are that the body is burried within 2 days, in some type of box, 6' deep and the health dept be notified of the location.

My neighbor's first husband is burried on the edge of her field, and her second husband always makes sure it is kept nice and neat with a flag flying over it

[stanb999]

If you wish to be buried on your land in PA. It's no issue.
The requirements are simple fairly simple. Just need to get the death cert. and burial cert. Then get then in the ground.

[Jim S.]

My FIL was cremated, brought home in the standard-issue cardboard box, and we gathered to sprinkle his ashes under a huge sycamore out in a back pasture where he and my MIL used to go to have picnics.

Total cost was $600, which he would have loved. No memorial service for the public. He always said he could see no reason for it, as he'd be dead and folks had other things to do.

Farmers and ranchers: very practical folks.