What is a “green funeral”?
A green funeral? Isn’t that a little weird? On the contrary, a green funeral has a lot in common with some of the most traditional funeral rituals, and what most people in North America think of as a “typical funeral” is in fact a rather recent invention. In traditional Jewish burial rites, for example, embalming is a desecration, and coffins must be made completely of wood — metal coffins would be a disrespectful effort to preserve a body. In most of the world, people don’t embalm, and they pay their last respects to the deceased at a home wake. How did the American funeral become what it is today? Largely due to the efforts of the commercial funeral industry, the typical North American funeral has become a very energy-intensive, very polluting, and very expensive affair. Critics of the funeral industry — and there are many — have charged that the industry takes advantage of consumers when they’re at their most vulnerable, charging exorbitant fees for procedures and products that a
A green funeral involves conducting final arrangements and disposing of a body in ways that restore and conserve the environment, without using the harmful chemicals and nonbiodegradable materials commonly used by the funeral industry. There are a few specific practices targeted for change in green funerals: • Embalming. Embalming fluids typically contain formaldehyde, a chemical now known to be a health risk for funeral workers and others exposed to it for prolonged periods. With the exception of some instances when a body must be transported interstate or when there’s a week or more between death and burial or cremation, embalming is rarely required by law (contrary to popular belief). Funeral practitioners and consumers intent on green funerals opt for refrigeration or dry ice as a means of preserving a body rather than embalming. When embalming is performed (which may be the case when there’s a public viewing of the body, for example), they choose nontoxic chemicals that are now av
