How To Avoid Being“Greenwashed” in Your 21st century Natural Deathcare Choices
Join the Revolution in Natural, Conservation & Restoration Deathcare!
Let’s face it—the choices in deathcare of the past 80 years are dismal at best, namely dealing with fossil-fuel guzzling crematories, chain funeral homes and cemeteries now owned largely by SCI (Service Corp Int’l/Neptune out of Texas.) The staggering rise in cremation rates over 40 years from 1980-2022, indicates how Americans were convinced by Neptune that they could save on land use and make death easier, quicker, and more efficient than a conventional burial and funeral. But the cremation industry has been a mercury-breathing dragon that is wreaking havoc on our local and global environment with huge costs to our health and ecology. And the average cost of a post-pandemic cremation has increased from $7,000 to $9,000 in many cities. Conventional cemeteries have increased their rates in $8,000 to $15,000, about 60% of those cemeteries being owned by SCI. To compound the injury, the costs to our global environment are extreme in terms of crematory mercury emissions —about 22,000 pounds of mercury vapors, along with what scientists call “the dirty dozen” other pollutants, and the fully unnecessary chemical drenches of the funeral and cemetery industry.
“Green burial” is a term that has become “green-washed” over the past two decades since the Green Burial Council set up standards for cemeteries about 25 years ago. As one conservation cemetery director said, “Green burials sound like something you’d find at the back of your refrigerator that has sat there for too long!” The correct terms, according to leaders in the movement are these: “Conservation deathcare”, “environmentally-responsible restoration burial grounds”, and “ecosystem deathcare.” With the 25-year old Conservation and Restoration burial movements, people are no longer subject to the “greenwashing” of a 100-year old industry that cares mostly for profits and little for the earth and all its inhabitants.
Now many Americans reportedly want a “green burial”— about 70%-80% in various surveys over twenty years report this, according to research done by Lee Webster and others at the Conservation Burial Alliance. The Jewish, Baha'i and Muslim religions have always required this, and 80% of Catholics surveyed say they would choose it. The Green Burial Council notes these increases in popularity in the movement on their website. In 2007, an AARP survey reported 47% would consider green burial. By 2011, US Catholic Magazine reported 80% of its readership was in favor of green burial. In 2016, about 900 plus new Facebook followers were added annually to the followers of the Green Burial Council. The GBC conducted a 2015 survey of green burial consumers and found the following:
An increased interest in minimizing effects of deathcare on the environment;
Pursuing ancient traditions;
Low cost of a natural burial;
Improved emotional connection and family involvement in deathcare;
More comfort with the idea of having legal rights to natural deathcare;
finding a new positive attitude around death from conservation burial ground activities such as relaxation in nature, hiking, birdwatching, enjoyment of renovated wildlife habitats, picnicking, family reunions, and comfort in grief from nature and with family and friends
Choices and freedoms in ethical, spiritual or religious choices around natural burials.
Most recently, a 2019 land trust survey of Massachusetts citizens reported they had two main wishes were for their deathcare 1) accessibility of the burial site for grave visitation by family or friends, and 2) a native tree planted at the site of their grave.
FACT: The modern cemetery industry is a chemically-dependent industry
The problem of lawn sprays is significant because they are used freely in the conventional cemetery adjacent the small certified “hybrid” part of the cemetery. In the “hybrid” burial plot areas, sprays are prohibited but can still blow through wind drift into the “green” areas (manual lawn care and weed whipping is the standard to be used within the green areas of hybrid cemeteries.) The amount of lawn-care chemicals used by the industry is in the millions of gallons annually, significant enough that one really has to question whether supporting such a “hybrid” cemetery can be considered to be “green.” But certification is critical for both the Green Burial Council and for the public. The GBC has certified about 60 “hybrid” cemeteries across the U.S., but the truly “green” cemeteries are those that are fully designated as a “Natural Burial Cemetery,” or “Conservation burial ground” (9 in the U.S. as of this writing, with 20 plus developing). The past fifteen years has shown a push for the latter two, rather than increasing the numbers of hybrid cemeteries.
Yet, modern cemeteries continue to use “biocides,” the term biologist Rachel Carson used to describe the true effects of herbicides, insecticides and pesticides used heavily in cemetery lawn care. Carson herself died in her fifties from breast cancer, probably due to the very DDT exposure she became famous for protesting against. Today, Roundup sprays are known by the public and medical science to cause lymphomas, yet they continue to be widely used. It’s a known fact among the chemical manufacturers that once you kill off the soil with biocides, cemeteries then have to keep using more and more synthetic fertilizers in order to keep the grass alive. Thus, there’s an ever-increasing loop of more weed killers followed by more chemical fertilizers. Choosing not to have a “conventional” burial means we will no longer support the chemical dependency of an industry using biocides.
If a burial ground (even those claiming to be “Conservation” or “Natural”) or a funeral home advertises that they are “green,” ask for their GBC certification. For funeral homes, the designation or certification may only be for self-certified “green merchandise.” Even worse, chain funeral homes claiming to be “green” often have a crematory on site. If they don’t have certification papers, look elsewhere for your deathcare needs.
Perhaps if Jessica Mitford were alive today she would write a book on the $20 billion dollar, chemically-dependent deathcare industry, not just for the extreme profits made but because of the constant greenwashing that goes on. In her place, Joshua Slocum and others have questioned the unnecessary pollution, as in his article Cost, Conscience and Greenwashing. Slocum is now Executive Director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, the watchdog non-profit with 50 years of experience begun by Lisa Carlson. He writes, “In our capitalist nation, vendors like nothing better than coming up with something 'new and improved' –with a suitably upgraded price. This is a particular concern when it comes to green burial and the stodgy conventional funeral industry... But consumers need to be wary. Funeral homes realized that green burial could threaten their cash flow if they don't handle it carefully. After all, green burial is merely simple burial.”
Slocum continues, “It’s about what you don't buy. Cross off the metal casket and go for a shroud, skip the embalming and use dry ice instead, and forget that bronze-lined burial vault. A boon for your wallet [and the Earth], but not for the morticians. Expect that some funeral homes will start marketing green burial as a 'premium' service with a premium price, perhaps by appealing to your sense of doing right by the environment...There's a hint of fear, perhaps bordering on desperation, lurking behind some of the more fanciful ads in the funeral trade magazines –green burial isn't a welcome development for companies that make their living selling boxes for burning and burial.” In fact, as Slocum is quick to point out, “the greenest casket is what you don't buy.”
What’s the most environmentally-responsible choice for your deathcare?
After 8 years of research and writing The New American Way of Death, what I gleaned from many interviews and visits to conservation burial projects is this: the only truly sustainable solution with the least pollution is…conservation or restoration burials in a certified sanctuary or preserve. There are 9 projects now, scattered across the country, with 19 projects on the horizon or working their way toward certification over a two-year process.
And the most biodegradable burial is with a shroud (preferably certified “green” cotton, silk or muslin, and manufactured without Roundup or other chemicals used rampantly in the cotton industry.) Simple but time-honored, and good for the soil, an ancient practice without which we would have no regeneration of any life on earth.