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Ecopods are burying the greenwash
Did you ever hear that joke -- that the quickest way to significantly reduce your environmental footprint is to die?
However, while death is a natural part of ecosystems, with dead organisms consumed by other organisms (waste equals food), dead humans are typically embalmed with a toxic cocktail of chemicals and then entombed in nesting boxes of concrete, plastic, and precious hardwoods.
Marketplace ran a story about an 'eco-friendly' coffin producer in the UK who is producing recycled paper coffins to reduce the environmental impact of funerals. While the coffin is indeed part of the story, shipping a $3,000 (recycled) coffin 5,000+ miles to reduce a burial's environmental impact feels a bit like selecting the rapidly-renewable bamboo trim package to reduce the environmental impact of your hummer.
The embalming fluid is the elephant in the room. It is estimated that over 800,000 gallons of formaldehyde-containing embalming fluid are buried each year in the US.
Green Burials, or Natural Burials, offer the opportunity of preparing the body without toxic embalming fluids. Refrigeration is typically substituted to slow the decomposition process, with the body then buried in a biodegradable casket or simple shroud, and typically interred in a natural burial site serving as a wildlife preserve. Home funerals, which often use dry ice to preserve the body for viewing, offer an opportunity to further reduce impacts and personalize the experience.
The Green Burial Council has developed standards for Conservation Burial Grounds and Natural Burial Grounds, as well as a directory of green burial providers and resources about the environmental impacts of burials.
The UK has seen the introduction of AARDBalm - a non-toxic, short-term preservation solution (formaldehyde & gluteraldehyde free).
Not only does the fluid safeguard traditional funeral customs whilst enhancing the appearance of the deceased, importantly the product provides a safer working environment for Embalmers and, allows the natural decomposition process to occur without seeping harmful toxins into the ground and watertable.
AARDBalm will be available soon in the USA and Canada. Visit www.aardbalm.co.uk for further information.
EcoGeek just ran a story about liquification as 'greenest way to die', having a carbon footprint 18 times less than cremation: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1529/85/
Excerpt: "When the body has been fully liquefied, it has been separated into two main parts. The first is a bio-fluid that is basically a collection of all our building blocks: Salts, sugars, peptides, and amino acids. The nutrients in this liquid are still entirely intact and can be returned to the soil to help our plants grow. The second is basically a "shadow" of your bones called bone ash, pure calcium phosphate. This can be used in horticulture, ceramics, and even as a raising agent! In other words, getting resomated allows you to fully return your body to the Earth without worrying about adding a bunch of unwanted stuff to the soil at the same time."
As a funeral director/embalmer I to am anxious for formaldehyde free embalming. Also I work at a funeral home that is striving and assisting in establishing the first green cemetery in Ohio. However, my concern with embalming is that in the U.S. there is no true formaldehyde free embalming. If you check the MSDS sheets for gluteraldehyde you will see the presence of formaldehyde which is used to stabilize gluteraldehyde. So I am anxiously awaiting some of the products that are currently being used in Europe to make their way across the ocean.
My much-loved 97-year-old grandma passed away a couple months ago, and it has me thinking about what I hope will happen to me. Jim gave the description (refrigeration, no embalming, an organic sheet shroud preferably found in my home and not purchased new, plant a tree over me, get rid of my stuff on <a href="http://www.freecycle.org/">Freecycle</a>).
Lacking a death wish, having good genes, and barring a freak accident, I've been hoping that by the time it matters green burials will be familiar and less resisted by The Burial Industry.
My plan doesn't much matter if I'm not here to make it happen. I don't know about anyone else, but my family doesn't spend much time talking about last wishes, and I'm young enough that making my own arrangements seems macabre.
So – what do I do to pave the way... just in case? Leave fliers about the legality of not-embalming and using shrouds around for my parents to find? (Would they think I was making suggestions for them?) Send them a link to this post?
RE Embalming:
1) Embalming is not required by law. There is a time-requirement for artificial preservation in many states, however. Refrigeration, dry ice, or even 'nothing' at all can be perfectly adequate.
2) Formaldehyde-free embalming fluid has been available from the third largest embalming fluid company in the US for over 15 years. It uses a less toxic (an irritant - gluteraldehyde - as opposed to a carcinogen - formaldehyde) substance as its active ingredient. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen and harms embalmers, makers, and any natural environments in which it comes into contact in concentrated form.
Recognizing its toxicity, hospitals replaced formaldehyde products with gluteraldehyde-based sanitizing chemistry back in the 60's. The fact that embalming is still perceived to be required by law, and that it's still perceived as needing formaldehyde to accomplish the result, is a myth that's been available to uncover for years.
Thanks to the internet, that myth can now be busted once and for all.
3) A completely non-toxic - no MSDS - embalming product that replicates the preservation task of contemporary embalming (not the Aardbalm product, btw) has been formulated in the US and will be available early 2009. Funeral homes who wish to use the non-toxic plant-based products need to transition through the gluteraldehyde since the process/result of embalming without formaldehyde is quite different than what takes place with formaldehyde-free operations and embalmers will need to adjust their techniques accordingly. Green funeral directors around the country are beginning the shift to gluteraldehyde now.
4) 20% of all deaths happen non-locally and still require some form of embalming, mythology around the law not-withstanding (the myths ensure the rest of the bodies all get embalmed, no matter what). An individual preference for no-embalming by the natural burial community (and I'm in this camp, personally) should not end up forcing everyone else who believes they want embalming to use the most toxic substance available in order to get it.
Having a non-toxic embalming fluid will make it possible for a lot of folks, forced into embalming for practical means or simply having that be the choice of their parents or loved ones, to at least opt for toxic-reduction in the workplace (now, with the gluteraldehyde) or non-toxic embalming (next year, as soon as the non-toxic product is released).
Once again, putting more natural choices out there that populate the continuum of options in the old-style funeral industry that allow the leading edge (the top 5%-10%, perhaps?) of the marketplace to adjust as it can, is extremely important in the earliest stages of this revolution in how we conduct our technologies at the end of our lives.
Thanks for offering the information to folks. Thanks for continuing to do the research necessary to have the knowledge to reply to your commenters with the support making good choices requires. It's a very new topic, and not a lot is publicly known yet.
in trees,
Cynthia
