If you think it’s hard to live in an environmentally conscious manner, just wait until you’re dead!
By Michael Kalmanovitch, SEE magazine
Even in death, Michael Kalmanovitch will follow the cardinal rules of conservation. He wants his body rendered, “like any other animal,” and hopefully recycled–rendering, of course, being the process by which a body is crushed or boiled to seperate the fat from the bone. The fat can then be used to make animal feed, wax, glue, etc.
Kalmanovitch’s extreme dedication to the environment may shock some, but it wouldn’t be the first time the green crusader has pushed Edmontonians beyond their comfort zone. Whether he’s upsetting the legions by selling white poppies for peace while Canada is at war or pushing City Hall to implement an anti-idling ban in a freezing city devoted to the personal automobile, the owner of Earth’s General Store has a knack for disrupting the status quo and pushing Edmonton’s environmental agenda forward. He’s been doing it for over a decade, he wants to keep doing it… even after he’s dead.
Like many aspects of North American culture, our death rituals exact a huge toll on the environment. Embalming injects corpses with formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. Lacquer and varnish on caskets contain petrochemicals. The concrete vaults that encase each burial plot block rainwater from returning to the water table. Traditional cemeteries also eat up a lot of land: if we extrapolate from the average size of a coffin and the number of deaths, burial plots alone gobbled up roughly 6,800 square metres in the Capital Region in 2005 alone (if everyone had been buried).
Kalmanovitch has rejected these traditions and stipulates three options in his will for the disposal of his body: rendering, burial on a farm, or cremation. “We are a society that is now looking at doing things differently than we have been in the last 150 years or so,” he says. “People want a ceremony that supports their beliefs.”
Kalmanovitch isn’t the only person looking to lead an alternative deathstyle. Overseas, the natural burial movement has gained momentum, with 200 ecologically friendly cemeteries in operation in Britain. The Ecopod, a peapod-shaped biodegradable casket made of paper and hardened with minerals, sort of like papier-mâché, was also developed in Britain.
The sacrosanct corpse
In Canada, tradition and provincial laws make ecologically sustainable options difficult and sometimes impossible to implement. All human remains must be treated with “dignity,” says Eoin Kenny, a spokesperson for Service Alberta. It’s a good law in some respects–few people would want grandma’s body arbitrarily turned over to necrophiliacs. The downside, of course, is the wasteful practices it perpetuates. For example, even during cremation, human bodies must recline in a coffin. Simply throwing a body into a fire is considered an indignity.
So imagine what the authorities would think of recycling a body. As Kenny diplomatically puts it, rendering is “not an approved method of disposing a body.” Which means the chances of Kalmanovitch’s body being recycled into useful objects like candles or pet food are pretty much nil.
If you’re really interested in a finding another use for your body once you’ve shuffled off your mortal coil, the law makes special exceptions for people who donate their body to science. Although it doesn’t technically qualify as recycling, the gift to education would at least represent a re-use option.
Organic burial
Kalmanovitch is very much aware of the laws against rendering corpses, and has laid out other options in his will. Next on his list is burial on an organic farm. He objects to the amount of space cemeteries eat up, especially within the city, where the land could be much productively used to provide shelters for the living, not monuments to the dead.
His burial should involve as little fuss as possible, Kalmanovitch says: “I want to be buried in a natural state, just in a cloth, and put into the ground so that micro-organisms can break me down.”
But if Kalmanovitch wants that process to happen underneath a farm, he and his family may once again run into conflicts with provincial laws. Each corpse requires a burial permit, and each cemetery requires municipal and provincial approval–something a farm is unlikely to receive, no matter how bucolic the setting. “We need to relax some of those laws, as long as it doesn’t present the possibility of making other people sick,” says Kalmanovitch.
There are some sensible health-related reasons behind these precautions. Disease could contaminate the water supply. Also, permits for cemeteries are generally only granted to cities and religious organizations, which Kenny says helps ensure burial records are kept safe.
Local fare
The Canadian group works to create natural cemeteries, where all the trappings of traditional burial–embalming, concrete vaults, elaborate coffins and headstones–are forbidden. The group also works on preserving natural land and native ecosystems though the creation of alternative final resting places. The NBA has active branches working toward natural burial grounds in Ontario and Saskatchewan, and in 2008, British Columbia is expected to become the first Canadian province with natural burial grounds. (They’ve got a spot picked out in Victoria.)
There are no plans for natural burial grounds in Edmonton, which makes local green funerals more complicated, but not impossible. City cemeteries require concrete vaults for each plot (the structure keeps the ground from caving in after the body and coffin collapse and begin decomposing), but country cemeteries often don’t, offers Ted Winn, president of Imperial Legacy Caskets. The Edmonton-based company manufactures plain wood caskets with no metal whatsoever. Since the green agenda became mainstream, many companies have jumped on the bandwagon and new products are coming out all the time. A quick chat with a funeral director could uncover other options as well.
Going up in smoke
Kalmanovitch’s last choice, cremation, is the easiest option, but not one that the eco-crusader finds entirely satisfactory. Burning his body would create carbon emissions and pollution. (The mercury in dental fillings is the most cited culprit.) Kalmanovitch could offset the pollution by stipulating a sum for carbon emissions credits in his will, but that’s not an ideal solution. As he said earlier, he wants a ceremony that reflects his beliefs. If his life didn’t fall into easy conventions, why should his death?
Edmonton lawyer Erin Chrusch
No one wants to hear ‘oops’ when a corpse is involved
Even if your family tree is stuffed with eco-activists, it’s important that you talk about your green burial plans with family and friends, says Erin Chrusch, an Edmonton lawyer with the Estate House.
Even if you specifically set out your wishes in your will, she says, that’s no guarantee they’ll be followed. “It’s usually too late by the time people look at the will,” she warns. “You might already be on your way to being embalmed or cremated. Then your executor looks at the will and goes, ‘Oops!’”
June Campbell, director at Park Memorial funeral home, agrees. Family power games often get played out after a death, and having a plan in place can save everyone additional stress. For the eco-activist ready to contemplate their ultimate demise, here are three helpful pointers.
1. Talk with family and friends about your wishes. Make sure they fully understand how each aspect of the funeral will unfold and why. It’ll be harder than explaining to your suburban soccer-mom older sister why you still insist on taking public transit, but it’s also more important. Make the effort.
2. Choose your executor wisely. If you don’t specify an executor, the responsibility falls to your eldest next of kin. So if you don’t want your SUV-driving uncle at the helm, designate another relative or friend who shares, or at least respects your views. This person will make all the decisions regarding your burial. They can change anything regardless of any wishes you have set out, so make sure it’s someone you trust.
3. Pre-plan your funeral. Writing out all the details of your funeral and leaving them with a trusted friend or relative can offer some assurance. You can also sign-up for a pre-planned burial though a funeral home, but they will request some payment up front. Set out all the details with the funeral home and they will keep it on file until your death.