From reusable shopping bags and recycled clothing to green cleaning products, environmentalism is everywhere in life — and now it’s becoming a factor in death.
As cemeteries fill up and people become more environmentally conscious, they are looking towards green burial options.
The debate centres around whether cremation is more environmentally friendly than traditional burials.
Burials such as cremation save land space by scattering ashes or burying just an urn, rather than taking up the room of a full casket.
On one side, cremation is seen as the more environmentally friendly choice because it uses less land space, thus preserving the earth.
But burial can be seen as more environmentally friendly because it does not expel toxic emissions into the atmosphere.
Michael Sheedy, the vice-president (operations) at Pinecrest Remembrance, said the daily emissions from a crematorium only let out about the same amount of mercury into the atmosphere as breaking a fluorescent light bulb.
According to Pinecrest cemetery statistics, only 24 per cent of people who prefer cremation choose it because it is more environmentally friendly.
But determining the most earth-friendly means of burial isn’t an easy task.
Do you kill trees by burying where the roots are, taking up less space?
Or do you scatter the caskets among areas of land that are free of roots, leaving the surrounding nature untouched but taking up more space?
“It’s all these different dynamics that play, that make it very difficult,” Sheedy said.
At Pinecrest Remembrance, structures have been built to address some of these issues.
Crypts, large mausoleums and urn gardens have been built on land taken up by tree roots to preserve the earth and create more space options for the deceased.
It is clear that the cemetery has taken advantage of all the space they have; there are even urns in the structural walls of their old crematorium.
The cemetery is also starting to allow families to bury two urns over a previously buried casket of their ancestors, to use space more effectively and keep incoming family closer to their descendants as land fills up.
“From a cemetery standpoint, you always have to be about 10 years ahead,” Sheedy said.
David Bagnell, funeral director at McGarry Family Chapels in Ottawa, also said he sees the trends in burial and body disposal changing; the industry is developing to meet customers’ environmentally conscious demands.
“It’s the future,” Bagnell said.
Options of wicker caskets, caskets made of unfinished wood and wooden hinges are environmentally friendly because they are more biodegradable.
Customers also have the option of water biodegradable urns that are designed to float briefly before slowly descending, or even biodegradable urns embedded with wildflower seeds that will bloom year after year as a reminder to loved ones.
This story appeared in the January 2011 edition of the Charlatan magazine. For more stories from this issue, please see: