Going Green: Literally

Eco-insensitive burial is so last century

By Kevin Raub
Published: Mar 24, 2008

When we were contemplating the name of this eco-friendly travel column, Going Green was obvious. We did not, however, mean it quite as literally as the folks at Ecopod, who specialize in the end of the line—the last stop on the environmentally-conscious bandwagon—allowing you to take your green views to the grave.

You will often hear people say things like, "When I die, I don’t care who pays off my credit card, I'll be dead!" True. And, for the record, your next of kin is not responsible for paying off your credit card unless their name is on it. Of course, that's a reckless attitude and abuse of the system, but again, you'll be dead and gone, so who cares, right? Well, Ecopod is betting on people that do care.
Blue Coffin by Ecopod
This U.K.-based company specializes in naturally hardened, 100% recycled paper coffins, designed as a pod-like container with aesthetics echoing back to Ancient Egypt. It might seem silly, a non-toxic burial, but in reality, it should be a major consideration in the ongoing battle to reduce our carbon footprints.

Have you ever really thought about how many people are buried six feet under in massive laminated coffins usually made from steel or fiberglass? Where does it all go? Should we really be burying all this stuff into the ground, the same ground we grow crops and plant trees and retrieve water? When the 6,643,742,763 (at time of writing) people currently on earth die, will we even have room for them all under out feet? It's mindboggling.

Acorn Urn by Ecopod So, it makes quite a lot of sense that the $11 billion per year funeral industry is seeing an upsurge in natural burials and funerals, ones that don’t involve formaldehyde embalming products or cement vaults or chemical lawn treatments. The concept isn't new—it’s just new to Americans. In China and Japan, for instance, coffins have long been made from cypress and cedar wood; and in Orthodox Judaism, wood is also used, with no metal parts or accessories. And, in the U.K., going green burial has been going strong since the mid-'90s.

So, enter the era of the Green Funeral Stateside, where the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle can and should be applied as well. Take embalming, for instance, you bet your ass the toxic chemicals used in the process suck for the environment, and some of it inevitably slips into the sewer systems near mortuaries and cemeteries. Family members can request refrigeration instead while waiting for the funeral process. Then there's the Woodland Burial, also popular in the U.K., where the deceased can be buried in a spot set aside in the woods near a traditional cemetery (over 200 spots around the U.K. have already been set aside). After the grave settles, a tree is planted to mark the spot and complete the natural cycle.

But the biggest environmental no-no remains the coffin, full of non-biodegradable materials and toxic chemicals. What's the point? Why not go with formaldehyde-free plywood; willow, seagrass and bamboo woven fibers; or hardened, 700# test honeycomb insert cardboard? You can also go with something handcrafted with certified wood from the Forest Stewardship Council. To go out in something gaudy, expensive, and full of environmentally-insensitive materials seems downright silly these days.

I mean, we all want to leave our marks, but do you really need your mark to last for a million years?

Kevin Raub is a freelance travel and entertainment writer who contributes regularly to Travel+Leisure, Town & Country, American Way, and Organic Spa, among others. He has been slowly and methodically going green since a wise old acquaintance once pointed out that coffee filters were white because they were bleached, adding, “Do you like bleach in your coffee?”

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