By Bruce Geiselman, Waste News.com
Billy Campbell is a rural doctor, an environmentalist and something of a pioneer — opening the nation´s first “green cemetery.” Dr. Campbell also jokes that he operates the nation´s only combination doctor´s office and cemetery office. “I´m pretty sure we´re the only one,” he said, laughing.
Campbell studied ecology and the environment in college before going forward with his medical degree. He practices near the town of Westminster, S.C., and has been active for years in land conservation.
In 1998, he and his wife, Kimberley, opened the Ramsey Creek Preserve in upstate South Carolina. It specializes in burials that eschew embalming, traditional coffins and headstones in favor of a simpler, less costly, more natural approach.
A green burial reduces costs by about half as compared with traditional burials. Graves are hand-dug, and instead of using expensive, finished coffins, the dead are buried in shrouds or a plain wooden box without a vault or grave liner. In addition, Ramsey Creek doesn´t look like traditional cemeteries with their paths and rows of headstones. Instead, it looks like a natural wooded area, which it is. If you didn´t know you were in a cemetery, it might be hard to tell. Many graves don´t have any markers at all, and those that have markers use simple, flat stones with modest engraving. Global Positioning Satellite equipment helps mourners find the unmarked graves when they visit.
Instead of placing cut flowers on graves, families are invited to a plant tree or shrub — but the plantings must be native to the area.While this type of cemetery may seem untraditional today, it´s not new. It´s how people were buried for thousands of years. “But somehow we´ve gotten away from that in the last 100 years, mostly in this country,” Campbell said. The goal also is to create a nature preserve that benefits the community. The living are invited to hike or picnic and observe wildlife at the 37-acre preserve.
Campbell also founded Memorial EcoSystems, which offers consulting services to others interested in developing green burial sites. The goal is to have one green burial site in each
state, Campbell said.
Interest in the concept is growing. It has been fueled by a recent episode of the popular HBO series Six Feet Under, which dealt with a green burial. And an article last year in the AARP Bulletin, a publication by the American Association of Retired Persons, mentioned Campbell and generated thousands of e-mails, he said.
Campbell said he´s surprised by the variety of people purchasing burial space. At first, he thought it would appeal only to environmentalists and conservationists. But they only make up about half of his clients, he said. Many clients are religious conservatives who cite a passage in Genesis in explaining their decision for avoiding embalming and preserving the body. The passage refers to the dead returning “unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Even a local resident who initially opposed Campbell´s establishing the Ramsey Creek Preserve eventually purchased a plot before he died. Campbell told the man he was surprised at his decision. “I love the outdoors,” Campbell quoted the man as saying. “It´s just you environmentalists I don´t like.”
While Campbell didn´t establish Ramsey Creek until seven years ago, his interest in green burial goes back much further. He credits a teacher he had in the eighth grade who said he wanted to be buried in a burlap bag and have a tree planted on him. “At 13, I thought that was the coolest thing I ever heard,”
Campbell said.
Contact Waste News government affairs editor Bruce
Geiselman at (330) 865-6172 or bgeiselman@crain.com
Source - Waste News.com