Deciding how and where to be buried is not a topic that everyone likes to talk about, but there are options and the green burials are the new trend that is gaining ground.
According to the Ecology Global Network, the world population now exceeds 7 billion people, with approximately 150,000 deaths a day. This means that 55,3 million people die every year, which produces high levels of organic waste decomposition.
For this reason, ecological burials can be a possibility to join sustainability. However, what does this kind of burial mean?
It is a funeral process that has a sense of responsability with the environment. It involves the way the body is prepared, the materials used and even the soils.
Greenhaven Woodland Burial Ground was opened in 1994 and it was the first, privately-owned, natural cemetery in Lilbourne, England.
The trend started to grow along with the incorporation of new biodegradable funeral products and there are some ecological cemeteries in countries such as Spain and New Zealand, among others.
Greenhaven Woodland Burial Ground replaced the use of tombstones with trees.
However, there are cemetaries that, in order to preserve their landscape, can’t change their structure. On the other hand, there are holy fields that although they can modify their landscape, need the care of the natural soil to allow a better use of the decomposition process of the human body.
In both cases, the body is reabsorbed by the flora and the trees and they offer nutrients that allow to renew the cycle of life in a natural way, without other additional products such as marbles, wooden caskets or tombstones.
This ecological initiative rejects wooden coffins, because they have a long process of decomposition, as well as the cremation and embalming of corpses, as these processes emit large amounts of smoke with particles of carbon monoxide, metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium, that pollute the environment.
The Green Burial Park has a “natural-environmental” funeral service concept, with a series of coffins made of more sustainable materials .
In addition, it is prohibited to place crosses, candles, flowers, photos or personal objects of the deceased in order no not to alter the natural aspect of the landscape.