The Final Gift of Conservation

For those committed to lessening their footprint on earth, there exists one final tribute that you can bestow on the planet that sustained you for all your years, and that is to prearrange a natural burial.

Burials around the world are conducted in a wide variety of ways, but here in North America they generally include the body prepared using toxic chemicals, placed in a wooden or metal casket, which is then buried in a concrete housing, covered with dirt, and a gravestone marker placed atop.

In a natural burial, things are a little bit different. The dearly departed is prepared without the use of chemical cocktails, buried in a more simplistic style of a shroud or a biodegradable casket, and the grave marker is a shrub or tree. Loved ones can locate the eternally slumbering by use of the GIS (geographic information system) employed by the cemetery.

The decomposing body in a natural burial fertilizes the ground with nutrients, contributes to the food supply of bugs and insects, and fosters new generations of life. It truly represents the full circle of life and regeneration.

Originally published June 19, 2010