‘Green’ burials growing more popular as a choice

In the environmentally friendly burials, the graves are usually hand-dug.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Environmentally conscious baby boomers are driving the growing popularity of “green” burials, in which dry ice or refrigeration replaces formaldehyde, or a wood coffin replaces a concrete vault.

Green burials are “the next big thing,” after an increase in the popularity of cremation over the last 25 years or so, said Rick Bissler, a funeral operator in Kent who has expressed interest in developing space for the burials.

“Green burials is just responding to what people want,” he said.

In a recent AARP survey of people 50 and older, one-fifth of respondents said they would be very interested or interested in green burial techniques.

“I can’t believe the figures myself,” said Joe Sehee, executive director of the 3-year-old Green Burial Council of Santa Fe, N.M. Sehee recently formed a green burial consulting business because of demand from funeral directors and cemetery operators, including a handful in Ohio.

There are fewer than 20 cemeteries in the United States that provide space for green burials, but Sehee predicts that number will easily reach 200 in five years. Green burials require separate cemetery space away from areas where heavy equipment is used. The graves are usually hand-dug around trees, the landscaping is native plants and wildflowers, and simple stones mark the grave sites.

In some ways, green burials are a return to the way things were done before the Civil War, when people died at home and their bodies were displayed without preservatives and buried in a simple graveyard.

During the war, a method was needed to preserve bodies of dead soldiers so they would not decay before arriving home, and embalming began.

Over time, funeral homes replaced family homes by creating an industry that catered to the needs of the dying with satin-lined coffins and expensive burial monuments.

Bissler, who is among those who have contacted the Green Burial Council, likes much of what the group promotes, but he is not ready to nix embalming. Although the law does not require embalming, he and many other funeral directors require the preservative when a body will be publicly viewed.

Environmentalists argue that the toxic chemical is a health risk to workers, can harm water and soil and is unnecessary.

But despite the growing interest in green burials, the funeral business will continue to see more interest in cremation, said Amherst funeral director Bill Hempel.

“I don’t really believe the general public is that concerned with the green thing,” he said.

Hempel expects that consumers will make decisions based on cost and that the trend toward cremation will continue to grow.