01/02/08 Green Burials

Some people take environmentalism to the grave,literally. In a green cemetery individuals are buried without embalming chemicals and they are not placed in cement vaults or steel caskets. Green cemeteries are popping up throughout the nation and while some people have requested that their bodies be merely wrapped in a family quilt and placed in the ground others opt for simple pine or cardboard boxes that allow their bodies to quickly decompose, ultimately fulfilling the phrase; ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Small flat indigenous stones grace green cemeteries, rather than the traditional large markers. The Green Burial Council states that nearly a million gallons of toxic embalming fluid is used each year and cites that while embalming is popular in the US and Canada it's nearly non-existent worldwide, and has not been part of American Jewish burials. So might be time to revisit how we bury our beloved, according to a growing number of environmentalists returning naturally to the land is the ultimate gift.