By Cameron Katrina, Myspace Blog
‘Green’ burial includes no embalming and the use of wrapping the body in a shroud or placing them (the deceased) in a completely bio-degradable coffin/casket that can be made of non-treated wood, wicker, or cardboard. Instead of creating large cemeteries that are only used for the dead and the use of valuable land space, conservation cemeteries are popping up across the country. Here, people can be buried ‘green’ and can have a rose bush, tree, rock, just about anything natural placed to mark where they are buried and will not disrupt the environment.
Ask your area funeral directors where you can have a ‘green’ funeral/burial in you area. Please keep in mind, many funeral establishments are not up to speed on going ‘green’ but they should be willing to look into conservation funerals for you. Most of the conservation cemeteries are starting in Nature Preserves where building and destruction of the land is not allowed in the first place. And…each body buried can have the option to be place in the ground with a GPS tracking device to always know their whereabouts for the future generations. Can cost $2000 or less and you are doing your part for the planet.
The traditional earth burial now is: embalm the body, place in a burial container that will not allow the decomposition process to occur, place in a cement vault to keep the body even more from decomposing and to keep the ground from caving in to be able place a very large ‘monument’ on the ground to show someone is buried there. All of the above for the traditional funeral costs big money (at least $6000.) and for what?!
When I first begin studying funeral service, I quickly realized that I was being taught how to sell death. To me, I was in it because I feel some things are to remain sacred. Everything about the traditional American funeral is about how much money a person spent and to hell with anything else (our needs during mourning and what we are doing to the environment). And that is where I felt I had to do something about the industry to be able to live with myself as a future undertaker (do not have that piece of paper just yet, but doesn’t mean I don’t know my stuff 
My main goal is to start an awareness about green funerals. The world over, other people’s get this, we Americans do not. Many of us still don’t even believe in global warming. So we probably won’t see much change in our life times. But, who knows, we may just luck out! For our planet’s sake, I sure hope so.