By CARLY SANDERS
Alligator Contributing Writer
Many people practice environmentalism in their daily lives. But now they can practice it after they die, too.
The idea of going green after death is a growing trend in the mortician industry in Gainesville.
“Society has created a weird separation between life and death, making it something that is handled by institutions instead of the family coming together and bringing the body back to the natural land,” said Robert Hutchinson, a board member of Conservation Burial Inc., a group that provides a natural burial choice in Gainesville. A basic green burial includes placing the body in a biodegradable casket without embalming it.
“But to take it to the next step of conservation burial, you take the sacredness of the burial and use it as a way to permanently conserve land while also protecting the environment,” Hutchinson said.
Biodegradable caskets can include a shroud, which wraps the body in fabric, paper or cardboard caskets and wood caskets, a renewable source, he said.
Conservation Burial Inc. is not only trying to protect the environment but is also trying to make funerals as affordable as other forms post-death treatments.
“Conventional burial costs between $8,000 and $10,000, and cremation costs between $2,000 and $5,000,” said Susan Marynowski, a board member of Conservation Burial Inc. “The conservation price would be comparative to the price of cremation, which is more affordable, and the money will go into conserving land.”
The group is also using biodegradable materials to make caskets.
Conventional burial includes materials that do not decompose, and regular caskets are made of imported woods, toxic finishes, plastic and metals.
Conventional burial also requires a piece of concrete called the vault, which encloses the casket in the ground. This has the most harmful impact on the environment. In fact, each year 1.6 million tons of concrete is used, which could pave a highway from Tallahassee to Miami, Marynowski said.
Conservation Burial Inc. has not yet purchased a site, but the site the group is looking to buy is a semi-natural area that has been logged and grazed heavily, Marynowski said. Each time a plot is purchased, the group will restore a piece of the site. But it will probably take about 50 years to use all of the burial sites and restore the entire piece of land, she said.
“We plan on purchasing the site sometime in 2010 and turning it into a beautiful meadow with trees and walking trails,” she said.
Part of the money will go into a perpetual land management fund to conserve the property in the future.
For more information of environmentally friendly funerals, visit conservationburialinc.org.
