Going Vault-Free - Request "no liner" in your Cemetery Plot
The Natural Burial Company sells biodegradable caskets and urns
suitable for liner or vault-free earth burial because they decompose over time.
However, many cemeteries require vaults - extra boxes made of cement or steel that your casket is stored underground in, to prevent or forestall decomposition - forever, or as long as somebody pays your rent.
VAULTS ARE NOT REQUIRED BY HEALTH OR SAFETY LAWS
These rules are generally private cemetery policy. If you're ready to really "go green", you'll likely need to do a little footwork and research to find a cemetery that will work with you and provide you with a vault-free burial. Think of it as one more activist adventure, and something you can work on til you die!
GO VAULT-FREE - find a cemetery that permits a "no-vault burial" or wants to convert to sustainable cemetery landscape management
M
ost cemeteries that require vaults use them because they practice old-style landscape
maintenance techniques, still dependent on heavy lawnmowers and
equipment to mow and apply chemical compounds. Those machines compact
the ground over time, and are sometimes so heavy they crush coffins not
encased in vaults.
VAULTS DO PROTECT FROM SOME METAL CASKET DANGERS
Another common reason for vaults is the use of metal caskets. When a metal casket's top finally rusts through, a huge hole is created inside the space of the casket and, until the hole is filled up again, anyone who steps into that hole may have a leg ripped open by the rusty metal.
Vaults were designed to prevent this type of accident, but since even vaults collapse over time (50 years? 100? Cheap sectional vaults can go quickly...), vaults are only a temporary liability solution, and not a permanent one.
Vaults do not work for natural burial. The goal in natural burial is to fully return to earth, not remain separated from it. Natural burial grounds do not need vaults (Cemeteries in the UK do not use them, as a rule). In woodland burial grounds planted as forests or meadows, heavy mowing equipment does not pass over the grave. The biodegradable coffin collapses naturally with rain and time. The natural graves sink slightly and are then filled by hand a couple of times a year until the soil no longer collapses.
Natural landscapes do not need constant trimming, weeding, mowing, and de-mossing in perpetuity. Because there is comparatively little money spent on natural landscape maintenance, graves can be inexpensive AND habitat restored at the same time.
And in the most progressive urban natural burial grounds, bodies return completely to the earth and the grave spaces are then reused in a specified number of years, satisfying both the need to return to the earth naturally and keep the land free for future generations.
Find a Local Cemetery and ask if they permit burials without a vault
If you're lucky, you'll live near a natural burial ground (we keep a few lists here...). However, there are still very few in the US and if you're planning ahead, check your local area - you may be pleasantly surprised how close to nature some of the smaller cemeteries still are.
A lot of cemeteries - especially the old pioneer cemeteries, and those run by non-profit organizations like the Elks, the Oddfellows, the Masons, or small churches - still permit liner-free burial; that's "how it was done in the old days" and a number of them still feel they can do it today, especially when they learn that people might actually WANT them again.
Some cemeteries convert to natural burial gradually, with wildflower
areas left to grow unmowed and the elimination of vaults becoming
their first steps to a low-maintenance, high-nature..." Be a Tree, the Natural Burial Guide for Turning Yourself into a Forest."
And, as the picture below shows, it's ok to lighten up with the
lawnmower (see the back area with its wildflower covered gravestones?)
- nature can take it...
ENCOURAGE A NATURAL BURIAL GROUND IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD (and then tell us about it!)
There are still only a few natural burial grounds in the US - though more seem to be starting all the time (and what a natural burial ground IS is still up for debate). We keep a partial and constantly updating list on our website.
And even if nothing's been established yet near where you live, if you want to arrange for a natural burial - and perhaps even re-establish roots for the whole family - you probably can. Ask around - if there's a cemetery near you that still has some undeveloped land yet, the owners may be ready to think about making it a natural place.
Remember - It is NOT necessary to be buried in a woodland burial ground in order to begin cleaning up the burial process. "NATURAL BURIAL" begins with a biodegradable container and just gets greener from there.
Stumble It!
