Executive summary
- This report outlines the process of a Natural Burial also referred to as a Green Burial and how the process differs from a traditional interment including costs and impact on the environment.
Climate implications
- Both burials and cremations leave behind a significant environmental footprint.
- Embalming fluid and some of the glues used in casket making contain formaldehyde a known carcinogen that breaks down releasing chemicals into the ground after burial and ensuing decomposition are inert.
- An average 4 hectare cemetery holds enough embalming fluid to fill a small swimming pool.
- Coffins and caskets are made from a variety of materials, most of them not biodegradable. It is estimated that roughly 30 million board feet (71,000 meters3) of casket wood is felled every year in North America some of which comes from tropical hardwoods, such as mahogany.
- The amount of steel used in caskets and vaults yearly is equivalent to the amount used in the Golden Gate Bridge. The amount of concrete used in vaults could build a highway between San Francisco and Portland.
- The manufacturing and transport of caskets and vaults requires large amounts of energy.
- In addition, ongoing cemetery turf maintenance contributes to emissions of fossil fuels as do cremation practices releasing harmful gases like mercury, dioxin, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For comparative purposes the energy needed for one single cremation is the equivalent of the power an average person uses for an entire month or 106 litres (28 gallons) of fuel.
- Conventional burial also occupies scarce and valuable land. Green Burials, with no embalming, using a biodegradable casket or shroud, and with direct earth interment can offer a more environmentally sensitive alternative to both cremation and traditional burial options.