Resources and Information Supporting Green Burial in North America
By Philip Proefrock, Green Options
The move towards a greener lifestyle extends even to the end of life. Choices for the final resting place include some relatively new approaches. Many of these developments seem to be coming out of the United Kingdom and from Europe, though they are being adopted in other countries, as well.
Eco-friendly dying
By Peter Hadzipetros, CBC News
You’ve done your bit for the environment during your lifetime - minimizing to whatever extent possible your consumption of non-renewable resources and your discharge of stuff that is bad for the air we breathe and the water we drink.
By Laura Shinn, Willamette Week Online
Some of us want a stylish sendoff to the afterlife. Let’s take Anna Nicole Smith, for example: She was laid to rest in a made-to-order pink couture gown inside a mahogany casket draped with a pink-sequined cover adorned with feathers and—you guessed it—pink ribbon. But we’re willing to bet those sequins will still be there in 2056. Beautiful (if that’s what you call it)? Yes. Sustainable? Not so much.
The Shropshire Star
At her funeral parlour in Ludlow, she says her final send off will reflect her life: “green” and fun.
By Bill Strubbe, Common Ground
Six feet under will never be the same if artisans catering to the green burial movement have their way. Whereas once a family’s standard internment choices might include the The Bel-Air Mahagony, The Regency or The Count Dracula (coffins that typically run from $2000 to $10,000), “green death” craftspeople are creating classy, earth-friendly coffins and urns, and many are based here in NorCal.
By Lenette Hall
Ashes to Ashes Dust to Dust. Many families are choosing to take a very natural approach to cremation by going “green”. Although biodegradable and green burial cremation urns are most often associated with those that are extremely environmentally conscious, many people are beginning to see the benefits of eco-friendly burials.
The Hereford Times
A Turner Prize-nominated funerary artist from Herefordshire has unveiled her latest creation - a sustainable boat-shaped coffin.
By Stacy Trevenon, The Half Moon Bay Review
El Granadan Jane Hillhouse recalls considering what she’d want for her own funeral. Something simple. An artist friend could decorate it with things she loved: gardening, music, sailing.
Then, inspiration struck.
“In the very next second, Oh! ‘Colorful Coffins!’” said an animated Hillhouse, naming the business she hopes to launch. “I was always one for alliteration.”
By Vince Patton, KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8
In the business of death, environmentalism just now is coming to life. Oregon will soon be home to the North American debut of the world’s first casket made of recycled materials.
Go out in style with this egg-shaped eco-friendly pod casket.
Death is something we all have to deal with at some point, and who wants to end up six feet under in a chintzy brass and pine casket? It sounds like a fate worse than death to us.