After Lawn Love came out with a list of the
most popular states for a "green" burial, it gave me pause: just what is a green burial, do I want one, and why hadn't I (Miss Green) ever heard of one? I had always figured cremation to be the greenest - or arguably, GREENER - alternative. I had seen death as bifurcated - I will be burnt or I will be buried. Scratch that, my body. I will be somewhere else, I hope, sipping a Mai Tai with Elvis, my mom and Uncle John. Connecticut is 24th in the nation for green burials, but Massachusetts is an impressive fifth. (Analyses of these figures is on Lawn Love's site.)
A green burial, turns out, can take several forms - from choosing a Redwood we like (while alive!) and buying the little plot of earth around it (then buying a plaque to mark our spot) to, more popularly I think, being buried in a green fashion by forgoing embalming fluids or a toxic burial containers in favor of one that is biodegradable. Connecticut has
Better Place Forests, for example, where one can find their "memorial" tree (one that "speaks" to them) and plan. These Memorial Trees include the right to spread ashes for one person (there are laws against spreading our loved one's ashes, willy nilly.)
According to The Living Urn, the following applies: Private Property – In Connecticut, and most other states, no state laws exist that restrict you from scattering a loved one's ashes in your yard or on other property you own. If you want to scatter ashes on private property owned by somebody else, be sure to get their written permission first.
I asked Candace Currie, Clerk for
Green Burial Massachusetts to give me the dirt. Following is a lightly edited transcript of our e-mail conversation:
1) Can you quantify the level of interest in green burials over time, say the past decade?
In 2014 Green Burial Massachusetts (GBM) launched a survey to our 400 newsletters readers. We assume most of the subscribers are interested in green burial and are/were the early adopters of a green burial and a conservation cemetery. Today, we have 1300 subscribers. They are still interested in where they can get a green burial, and many of them follow our search for a conservation cemetery.
Also, in 2014, only one cemetery (Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and Watertown, MA) was certified by the Green Burial Council (GBC). I was the person advocating for GBC certification for Mount Auburn. The GBC certification shows that an independent third-party organization has reviewed what Mount Auburn offers and certifies that it meets or exceeds the GBC standards. Today, Mount Auburn is still the only GBC-certified cemetery in Massachusetts.
Another town cemetery (Chesterfield, MA) allowed green burial in 2014. That was it - two - that GBM knew about.
Today in 2023, based on GBM's crowd-sourced database, 47 cemeteries allow green burial. Most of those are municipal cemeteries where there could be more than one cemetery per town. In many cases, cemetery by-laws had to change to allow for 'uncontained' or 'unvaulted' burials.
2) How does Massachusetts compare to the rest of New England for green burials?
Massachusetts is lagging behind Maine and Rhode Island in terms of having a cemetery dedicated only to natural or green burial; however, in Massachusetts, we are pro-actively looking for land for a conservation burial ground. Maine has Cedar Brook and Baldwin Hill (GBC-certified). Rhode Island has two GBC-certified - Swan Point and a lovely little cemetery, Prudence Memorial.
Connecticut has Wooster municipal cemetery, which did seek and achieve GBC-certification. Others - all hybrid - in Vermont can be found here: https://www.greenburialvermont.org/where-to-have-a-green-burial.html. I'm not aware of any in New Hampshire.
3) What type is most popular and do you know why?
I'm not sure what you mean by 'type' here. I'll make an assumption that it is about 'hybrid', 'natural', and 'conservation' styles of cemeteries.
Hybrid cemeteries allow both conventional burial (embalmed bodies in non-sustainably harvested wood and in some type of grave liner, which becomes a 'casket' for the 'casket') and green or natural burial. Most municipal cemeteries are hybrids, however, given that most of the towns in MA and much of New England were founded prior to the use of embalming (c. 1860s), those cemeteries were performing green burial when it was simply called burial. Sometime, mid-century 1940 - 1960s, many municipal cemeteries changed their bylaws to require grave liners (concrete or metal); this box for the box mostly reduced maintenance as there was less of a need to top off the grave after a few weeks or months after burial. The soil subsides and it makes it difficult to mow the lawn. Another thing that happens is the collapse of a grave. It is presumed that the grave liner or vault wouldn't collapse, however, those collapse too.
Natural cemeteries are only for green burial although most of them allow for the interment of cremated remains too. If seeking GBC certification, there is a limit (600/acre) on the number of burials that may be performed. This number should be compared with conventional/municipal of about 1000 to 1200/acre where space is always at a premium. The conservation cemetery allows for 400 burials / acre. The idea of digging holes in the ground is antithetical to land conservation therefore, they are restricted. Additionally, there is a partnership between a land trust and the cemetery. The land trust holds a conservation restriction or easement over parts of the parcel - for forest, wildlife, habitat - or whatever needs 'protection'.
Among the general public, I would say the hybrid, municipal cemetery is the most popular, as people like to be buried near where they have lived their lives. The conservation cemeteries certainly have an appeal, but they aren't the most popular.
4) Why are some green burial sites "certified" and others aren't?
I think it comes down to two things: money and why bother. Certification costs $545 for conservation and natural cemeteries and $345 to certify a hybrid, and then there is an annual fee after certification - presumably to stay listed on the GBC website; municipal cemeteries don't need to advertise their green burial graves. Towns often limit their available spaces to town residents only, or if they do allow non-residents, there's an added fes.
As GBM moves forward with Kestrel Land Trust in the search for land for a conservation cemetery, we plan to certify the conservation level. It is a way to ensure prospective 'residents' that the land is being conserved at the highest standards according to the GBC, and as a cemetery - forever. For some people, third-party certification is very important - not to mention that the body is also prepared in a non-toxic way and will be placed in a
biodegradable container - cloth shroud, plain pine coffin or even cardboard.
5) Do people from Connecticut express an interest in a green burial in Massachusetts? Or do you see the trend growing here?
A few years ago, GBM met with some folks from CT who began: http://ctgreenburial.org/index.html. Their website is clear and concise. I'm not sure of the state crossover, but there could be some. If we manage to create a conservation cemetery, I'm sure there'll be some folks from CT that will choose to be buried there.
6) How green is a green burial compared to cremation?
Green burial is the process of decomposition - it begins happening in our guts as soon as we die. https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/science_green_burial.html
Cremation requires a fossil-fueled source (although I understand in Europe there are now electrically-charged machines). Cremation of one human adult takes about 90 minutes at around 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. Once cooled, the remaining bones are processed in something like a cuisinart to create the 'ashes' that are really bone fragments.
Cremation is not green at all - HOWEVER, for municipal cemeteries that are trying to save space - cremated remains take up much less space plus they are much easier to put into the ground (could be done with a post-hole digger, if the soils are easy digging). Digging a grave for a body is usually done by a fossil-fueled machine, but there are few people dedicated to hand-digging graves. Winter burials are tough regardless of human or machine digging.
Image: By © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67253479
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