As people become increasingly conscious of their impact on the environment, they’re prioritizing choices that promote sustainability. Opting for an eco-friendly or green funeral is among the options that can help you achieve this. Green burials have a lower environmental impact and are usually more cost-effective. While planning a sustainable burial can seem challenging, the right strategies and tips can help ensure a smooth process. Discussed below is how to plan an eco-friendly funeral.
Consider direct cremation
Direct cremation is where a body is cremated soon after demise without a preceding funeral service or viewing. Its simplicity and absence of resource-intensive ceremonies make it a more sustainable funeral option. For a direct cremation, you primarily require an authorization form, death certificate, and cremation service provider who can take care of the transport and cremation procedure. Direct cremation offers numerous environmental benefits, including the following:
- Lower carbon footprint: Unlike traditional burials that come with substantial environmental costs, direct cremation needs fewer resources and releases less carbon dioxide, resulting in reduced carbon footprint
- Reduced resource use: The materials required for traditional burials, including metal or wooden caskets, vaults, embalming chemicals, and more, can be resource-intensive, which isn’t good for the environment. With direct cremation, there’s no need for these materials, which helps lower the demand for natural resources
With the help of a funeral home that offers direct cremation services, you can easily plan your own or a loved one’s funeral.
Use eco-friendly caskets
Green caskets are created with sustainability in mind. They’re made using biodegradable materials, which break down naturally, lowering environmental impact and the carbon footprint that comes with conventional caskets. Unlike traditional caskets, sustainable options don’t apply toxic chemicals for aesthetics or preservation. Eco-friendly casket options to consider include the following:
- Cardboard caskets: They’re made using recycled materials and can be customized with decorations, messages, and drawings. Cardboard caskets are not only strong but completely biodegradable
- Wicker and bamboo caskets: They’re an eco-friendly casket option due to their strength and durability, making them quite sustainable. The materials used to make wicker and bamboo caskets are lightweight and strong, and they decompose naturally
- Sustainably harvested wooden caskets: They’re crafted using wood from sustainably managed forests, ensuring the natural habitat is safeguarded for future generations
Choose eco-friendly funeral flower options
Opting for more sustainable funeral flower options helps safeguard the environment by lowering emissions, waste, and carbon emissions. Sustainable funeral flower options to consider include:
- Organic flowers: These are grown without pesticides, making them a more sustainable option for use in funerals
- Local, seasonal flowers: They lower carbon footprint because they need less transportation. Also, seasonal flowers can be reused or donated
Choose sustainably sourced flowers and consider using potted plants as a sign of a lasting tribute.
Opt for natural burial grounds
Unlike cemeteries, where the environment isn’t entirely natural, natural burial grounds prioritize habitat preservation, allowing bodies to decompose naturally while contributing to the ecosystem. Natural burial areas are woodland sites, meadows, or forests where natural memorials, such as plants and trees, can be planted. Natural burial sites rarely permit memorials or headstones. They can allow GPS coordinates or natural markers to help maintain the landscape’s beauty and integrity.
Consider human composting
Human body composting is a process that converts human remains into regenerative soil, usually used in conservation projects, tree planting, woodlands, and gardens. Unlike conventional burials, body composting is an eco-friendly funeral option that avoids using metal caskets, embalming fluids, concrete burial vaults, unending land use, and metal caskets.
During the composting process, the human body is washed and wrapped in a biodegradable shroud, and then the body is laid in a vessel with organic materials. The vessel is then sealed and carefully monitored to ascertain a perfect balance of nitrogen, moisture, and carbon to promote microbial activity. The body is then broken down into soil, conserving the environment.
Endnote
Green funerals positively impact the environment by lowering carbon footprint. Opting for direct cremation, using sustainable caskets, choosing natural burial grounds, and settling for human body composting can help you plan an eco-friendly funeral.