Plant Yourself

The Nature of Green Burials

by Sharon Nichols and illustrations by Carol Zaloom, October 27, 2008

In early September, I conducted a random poll of Hudson Valley residents. It read: “What would you like to have done with your body at the time of your death?

A. Conventional burial (embalming, expensive casket, concrete vault)
B. Cremation with embalming
C. Cremation without embalming
D. Sea burial in a metal casket
E. Green burial (no embalming, pine/wicker/cardboard coffin or cloth
shroud, burial in a natural or private cemetery)

If your choice is not listed, it’s probably illegal.”

The survey results proved interesting, as some decided to have fun with it. One individual requested burial with “a granite sarcophagus, a gold-lapis-turquoise-coral death mask, and three levels of gold outer sheathing”; another requested a backyard pyre. One friend wanted to be cremated and pressed into vinyl LPs, preferably records that he played on, that would be owned by “smokin’ nubile babes.” Another person said, “Just drag me outside and put me under one of the rocks,” and another desired to have his bones picked clean by birds: “string me up in a forest canopy that is frequented by corvids,” following his preferred method of death—tickling. Another said, “I want to be set adrift in a flaming Viking longboat”; one said “the idea of being mummified Egyptian-style appeals to my crafty side.” Finally, one individual opted for “non-embalmed cremation, preferably for the process to heat a hospital or run a generator at the same time,” or “an organic, cloth-shroud burial or birch bark casket in a thriving tree-filled park that children play in, not a stone-and-sadness-filled graveyard that takes up common green space. Compost me!”
Many who chose between the five legal options felt strongly about one of the choices, but some had difficulty deciding between two of them.