the Natural Burial Company - USA

How We Work to "Get it Green"

There's a lot to be learned in the field of natural burial, and a huge amount of it is common sense. You can start be reading the condensation of our forthcoming publication, "Be a Tree, the Manual for Turning Yourself into a Forest" at http://www.beatree.com

We also recommend spending some time exploring the links on our company website's sidebars and within its content, especially the sites in our Featured Resources List and the stories in the Alternative Funeral Monitor.

Thankfully, the UK's woodland burial movement has been going strong for almost 15 years, and many of the caskets offered by the Natural Burial Company are tried and tested, buried in the UK's more than 200 woodland burial sites and now offered for sale by hundreds of funeral directors around their country.

These coffins don't fall apart, they don't 'melt in the rain', and they're not undignified in any fashion. In fact, we believe that our handmade natural caskets and urns are some of the most beautiful burial options in the world and that, by respecting the earth and a natural return to our origins, we restore dignity for all those who love life and nature and want to make one last statement about that love before they "go."

IF YOU'RE A PRODUCER OR SUPPLIER:

We look for some special things when we source products. Mainly, we want items that are produced at lower scales of technology than what's currently in use in the conventional funeral business, from renewable or recycled resources, and naturally biodegradable. Since over 80% of the caskets sold in the USA right now are some variant of stamped steel (utilizing tooling and machinery technology from the  auto industry,  now shifting to Mexico and China), we know that means that most of our products, handmade from willow, bamboo, paper, wood, or another fiber, qualify for "greener" right off the bat!

If we sell your product, we'll want to know where it's made, who makes it, what it's made of, how many hands it passes through before it gets to us, how far it travels, and other things like that. If it's destined for burial, it should decompose more rapidly than a conventional burial casket. If it will go in a crematorium, it should be of all natural materials (staples and nails are ok - they can be recovered with a magnet later). We don't require certified Fair Trade status yet, but someday we might. We'll probably visit your workshop at some point and inspect your goods - our customers want to know that WE know you!

Primarily, we emphasize functional burial products that are made from recycled or renewable materials, biodegrade quickly, have lower energy inputs in production, minimal or zero toxins, diversify materials, preserve artisan skills, have an excellence of design, solve a problem creatively, and are at appropriate scale, etc. For more information, suppliers should learn about the Natural Step Principles and seek to bring their operations into alignment with those over time. Incremental improvements will go a long way toward both improving the environment and creating a level competitive field.

In 2008, we'll roll out our own "premier" line of branded products that are the "best of the best" the Natural Burial Company has to offer. If you want to be a part of that brand, please be in touch with us to learn what you should do.

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. This is almost always a private cemetery policy, and rarely an actual law unless the cemetery is questionably located on wet land and in danger of overtly violating the Clean-Water Act.

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 landscape management

Most cemeteries use vaults 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 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. 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.

 

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