Going green in death: The rise of the natural burial

I’ve decided that I'd like to go to Europe to die. It turns out a green burial is much easier to do in that part of the world. Of course, my death is not something I wish for — or care to entertain — but I can picture myself eternally at peace in one of the wild meadows or tranquil woodlands of the natural cemeteries I’ve seen in pictures and virtual tours. Strangely, this thought gives me a sense of calm I haven't felt before when I’ve thought of the dreaded day that befalls us all.

But travelling to Europe to be laid to rest wouldn't be green at all. The carbon footprint would be untenable. And I’d rather take the trip with my loved ones while I’m still alive.

Whether you call them green burials, eco-burials, natural burials or woodland burials, there's been a growing interest in going green in life — and in death.

I can picture myself eternally at peace in one of the wild meadows or tranquil woodlands of the natural cemeteries I’ve seen in pictures and virtual tours

—  Sanet Oberholzer

Erroneously thinking it a greener alternative, people have been opting for cremation in recent years. Unfortunately, cremation not only releases mercury from tooth fillings into the air and water, it also gives rise to byproducts that produce acid rain. Cremating just one corpse can release an estimated 242kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

As we'vebecome more aware of our impact on the natural world, a shift has occurred, and more people are choosing eco-friendly options over traditional burial and cremation practices.

The idea behind a green burial is for your body and funeral to have minimal impact on the environment. Being laid to rest in this way allows you to care for the environment after you die and leave behind an eco-friendly legacy. It requires doing away with traditional embalming — which releases toxins into the earth and groundwater, and is harmful to embalmers and funeral directors — and instead using shrouds made of unbleached, natural materials, or coffins that are biodegradable, non-toxic and made from sustainable materials like wicker, bamboo or willow. Natural stones, plants, trees or just GPS co-ordinates can suffice as grave markers.

A green funeral may be as simple as wrapping the departed in a shroud and lowering him or her into the ground, or it may involve a funeral service. For this to be green, you may want to consider a smaller service and ask mourners to carpool in a bid to lower carbon emissions. Then there’s the question of paper for the funeral programme. I'm partial to plantable, recycled paper containing flower seeds. Daisies would be cute — or sweet peas, perhaps. 

GLOBAL TRENDS

Speaking on a Quartz Obsession podcast about green burials earlier this year, visual opinions journalist Amanda Shendruk said that, according to global estimates, in 2021 the green burial industry was worth $500m (R9.8bn). By 2030, it’s expected to be worth $1bn.

In 2018, the US National Funeral Directors Association reported that more than half of Americans were considering a green burial. In the US and Canada there are more than 417 green burial spaces, with more than 100 certified by the Green Burial Council, a nonprofit organisation championing and setting the standard for green burials in North America. These locations include natural cemeteries and burial grounds, conservation spaces charging a burial fee that goes towards preserving the landscape and ecosystem, and hybrid cemeteries offering plots for green burials in traditional graveyards.

The UK alone has more than 300 locations catering to green burials, and in the Netherlands — a country about 29 times smaller than South Africa — Natuurbegraven Nederland has opened six nature cemeteries in the past 10 years. In Australia, some green burial sites like the Lismore Bushland Cemetery double as natural koala habitats.

Green burials are trending in some parts of the world, but we're really going back to the way things have always been done. “It’s not what we’ve been used to for a while in the West. However, this isn't new,” says Shendruk. “I see this as kind of an interesting rebranding of what's been a primary mode of parting with the deceased for all humanity. We’ve been burying people for ever, and we’ve only started using toxic chemicals in burial in the last few hundred years. It’s not new at all. It’s a new framing.”

TRENDS IN HOME SOIL

Sonja Smith, founder of Sonja Smith Elite Funeral Group, has been offering green burials in South Africa for the past 13 years. She was inspired to add it to her portfolio after she attended a funeral exhibition in England. According to her, South Africa is years behind places like the UK and the US, and in her experience South Africans are slow to adapt to changes in the funeral industry.

“A family member will come to my office to arrange a funeral for her mom who passed away and look at the woven range of coffins and tell her husband that when she dies she wants this, but for her mother, now, she wants a traditional wooden coffin,” Smith says.

But the biggest limitation we face in South Africa is access to green burial spaces. “The demand is low in South Africa purely because it defeats the object [of an eco-friendly interment] to bury someone in a biodegradable woven basket in a municipal cemetery that doesn’t cater for green burials,” Smith says.

Burying your grandmother under her favourite tree in the backyard isn't allowed either, as burials sites need to be legally authorised.

You could consider a plot in a private cemetery, but this can be very expensive.

For a proper green funeral, you need a green burial park. “It defeats the object to bury someone in a cemetery full of granite and stones where coffins are lined with plastic. Unless we have some innovative entrepreneurs developing green burial parks for this purpose, I don't foresee that this trend will change much in the near future.”

One trend that's popular among South Africans is to have your ashes buried in a biodegradable burial pod containing seeds or a sapling from which a tree will eventually grow. This still requires your body to be cremated, but allows you to have your ashes buried outside a cemetery, in a tranquil spot of your choosing, and be memorialised in the form of a tree. With these options now available for both humans and animals, you can also bury your pet this way. 

South Africa’s first eco-cemetery, Wiesenhof Legacy Park, was opened in 2010 on a privately owned nature reserve near Stellenbosch. About 300ha were set aside for green burial and remembrance sites where people could be laid to rest or have their loved ones scatter their ashes among blooming wildflowers.

Unfortunately, the park wasn’t sustainable and closed down three years after opening.

Hopefully, a new memorial park will soon be available for South Africans in the form of La Mercy Memorial Park in La Mercy, KwaZulu-Natal. Development is set to begin towards the end of the year, with the first phase scheduled for completion in 2025. It will offer hybrid burial options, including biodegradable burial pods for ashes and an on-site environmentally friendly crematorium. The biggest drawcard of the private burial estate is likely to be its offering a “serene sanctuary for both the departed and the living”.

WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS

For the time being, The Preserve’s two private cemeteries offer the only natural burial options in the country. They are marketed as places where you can experience a “truly African, natural burial”.

The Preserve on Sampouri Estate in Bela Bela comprises 483ha of bushveld, while The Preserve on Zilkaats Estate in Brits is made up of 500ha of land forming part of the Magalies Biosphere Reserve.

On a recent visit to The Preserve on Zilkaats Estate, before heading into the park I drove past a nursery of tree saplings. Here you’ll find only indigenous trees such as corals and figs to choose from as a marker for your grave, instead of a plaque or gravestone.

The cemetery itself operates on a hybrid model, with a section for eco-burials — where so far only ashes have been buried — and a section for traditional interments.

Despite being hybrid, they’ve tried as far as possible to keep the space green. No structures have been erected on the section of the reserve intended for burials, and they keep the area plastic-free. The idea is for family members and loved ones to be able to visit the grave or buried ashes of their departed, have a picnic, take a drive through the reserve, or simply remember their loved ones in nature’s peace and quiet.

“I believe that the youth of today, being far more environmentally conscious, will assist [in] driving this behaviour and increasing the interest and demand for green burials.” says Tony Sousa, a strategic adviser for The Preserve.

As South Africa slowly adapts and catches up with green burial trends, Sousa says it’s important to do what you can. “Having an environmentally friendly funeral isn't an event set in stone. Every [choice you make] in attempting to be more considerate [of] the environment should be commended,” he says.

No one situation is the same, and you’ll need to consider what’s feasible for your own funeral one day. With the current lack of green cemeteries in South Africa, being cremated close to home might leave a lighter carbon footprint than having a funeral hours from where you live. And if you haven’t done your part to be green in life, death may not be the time to make up for it.

ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO BE BURIED OR MEMORIALISED

Apart from green burials, there are a number of alternative ways to be buried or memorialised. Not all of them are eco-friendly, but they’re certainly different.

Nourish the earth: Developed by US-based green burial company Coeio, a mushroom burial suit, also known as an infinity burial suit, is a biodegradable shroud made from organic cotton embedded with mushroom spores which filter toxins and deliver nutrients to surrounding plant life in the soil.

Grow a tree: Whole body burial pods take biodegradable burial urns to the next level. They’re not yet commercially available, but two Italian designers are working on the Capsula Mundi project. The idea is to bury the body in a biodegradable egg-shaped pod that will nourish a tree planted on top of it. Cemeteries made up of these pods will eventually turn into large woodlands.

Swim with the fishes: You can turn your ashes into a reef ball with US-based charity Eternal Reefs. Cremated ashes are mixed into a pH-neutral concrete to form reef balls that are used to create artificial reefs to assist marine life where natural reef systems are failing.

Travel to space: With a space burial, you can fulfil your lifelong dreams of travelling beyond Earth. Companies like the US-based Celestis and Beyond Burials offer different flight paths. A small amount of ash can either be launched into space to return to Earth or launched to orbit the Earth or the moon, make a moon landing, or travel into deep space.

Dazzle on: Companies like locally based Glash Designs create glass-blown ornaments or jewellery which contain a small amount of your loved one's ashes.

Sing your song: Music lovers can become a vinyl record. UK-based company And Vinyly has found a way to press a small quantity of ash into a record of your choice.