Natural burials take dead gently to a green good night
Hoodude
Monday, September 17, 2007
BY ELIZABETH BIRGE
Star-Ledger Staff
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1190042703327050.xml
In life, Lou Tafuri loved to fish off the waters of Long Beach Island
or Island Beach State Park.
In death, he sleeps with the fishes. His family couldn't be happier.
Tafuri, who died in 2005, was cremated after donating his body to
science. Shortly before the ashes were returned to his daughter Susan,
she learned of a program that could provide her father with an eternal
resting place better-suited to him than an urn.
Today his remains are part of a concrete ball that make up an
artificial reef seven miles southeast of Great Egg Inlet, where fish
roam, plants grow and anglers fish.
Soon his daughter will be able to visit him: She plans to take scuba
diving lessons.
"You're in the ocean, you're back to nature, you're not clogging up
land," said Susan Tafuri of Hazlet, whose father, a Navy veteran, had
full military honors at the viewing of the reef ball the day before it
was deployed. "The majority of people I know never go to the cemetery."
Memorial reefs are part of an emerging movement in the U.S. toward
simpler, less costly, more environmentally friendly burials. The goal
is to return individuals to the earth with as little trace or
intervention as possible while preserving green space.
Called natural burial or green burial, the practice is generally
defined as one in which the body isn't embalmed, is placed in a
biodegradable casket and then is set in a grave without a concrete liner.
Cremation, while not a perfect form of natural burial because of the
energy required to complete the process and the dioxin and mercury
released into the air, is accepted in this category because the
remains leave little or no "footprint."
The savings can be significant. The average cost of a traditional
funeral is $6,000 according to the Federal Trade Commission, though
some can exceed $10,000.
The cost of a green burial is less than a third of that, and even
lower if it involves cremation and scattering the ashes.
These practices are familiar to those of certain religious faiths,
including Jews and Muslims, whose traditions and laws call for burial
as soon as possible after death, with no viewing and no embalming.
While they may be environmentally sound, centuries of faith dictate
the arrangements, not concerns for open space, groundwater, or a more
simplified way of dealing with death.
NATURAL BURIAL
The first green cemetery opened in 1998 in South Carolina. Since then
a handful have followed, including ones in California, Florida, Texas,
New York and Washington state. They tend to attract people interested
in environmental issues or those who have had a close relationship to
nature.
Everyone in Genevieve Maiberger's family, for example, was buried in
the traditional manner, she said, except her husband, who was cremated
10 years ago. But a few years ago, the retired teacher from Teaneck
read an article about Greensprings Natural Cemetery in upstate New
York, and she was sold.
"I have always thought that we should preserve the environment," said
Maiberger, 81. "I think this natural burial is ideal to make our
planet a better place for all of us to live; we're contaminating it
every time we bury someone."
Last year she drove up to Newfield, N.Y., in the Finger Lakes region
to look at Greensprings, almost 100 acres of protected meadow and
woods, and left feeling at peace with her decision.
"You go up this country road and you finally come to this beautiful
area that's surrounded by trees and nice bushes," she said. "It's
beautiful and you look out there and you think this is so beautiful
and so peaceful and so restful."
Like many other green cemeteries, the operators of Greensprings aspire
to the creation of a preserve where nature takes its course and
provides nutrients to the life growing above the earth.
"I love the idea of just returning to nature," said Mary Woodsen,
president of the cemetery, speaking of her own plans to be buried.
"Nature has been taking care of death for a long, long time. I just
think it's part of the natural cycle."
At Greensprings the dead may be buried with or without a coffin. No
grave stones are allowed; instead, families may have a field stone
engraved with the deceased's information which is placed on top of the
grave.
New Jersey doesn't have any green cemeteries, but those who wish to be
buried in one out of state can arrange it.
According to state law, a body can only be released to a funeral
director. But what happens next is entirely up to the family.
Embalming is not required by the state unless the body is held longer
than 48 hours or has a communicable disease, according to a spokesman
from the state's Division of Consumer Affairs. Neither are concrete
liners or caskets required by the state, although individual cemetery
boards may mandate them as a condition of burial.
SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY
New Jersey laws do require that the dead, if they remain here, be
buried in state-licensed cemeteries, meaning you can't turn your extra
acre of property into a family cemetery.
One difference with a natural burial, according to funeral directors,
is everything must happen quicker because without embalming, the body
begins to decompose immediately.
"Burial takes place a little bit sooner than if you're having a
traditional funeral," said Bob Prout, the owner of Prout Funeral Home
in Verona, which will work with families interested in natural
burials. "You're still able to have ceremony, there would be no
problem there."
Sam Delaney, funeral director at the William J. Leber Funeral Home in
Chester, said that even without widespread knowledge of the natural
burial alternative, people are downsizing their funerals.
"People are talking about simplifying; they don't want elaborate
funerals with visitations," he said. Like Prout, his funeral home has
also established a relationship with Greensprings.
Mark Harris, author of "Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern
Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial," believes the new options
represent a dramatic change in the way the public thinks about death.
"Baby boomers brought a somewhat environmentally friendly approach to
many changes in life," said Harris, who wrote an environmental column
for the Los Angeles Times for 12 years. "They took a natural approach
to childbirth, they fueled the appearance of organic grocery stores; I
feel that the same will happen as we approach the end of life."
Indeed, eventually Susan Tafuri's father will have company in his
underwater setting.
"I'm going to have one," she said, "and I'm going to put them all in
with me, my three dogs and the ashes of another."
--
Transduce That Marimba
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Hoodude <hoo...@newnorth.net> wrote:
> Called natural burial or green burial, the practice is generally
> defined as one in which the body isn't embalmed, is placed in a
> biodegradable casket and then is set in a grave without a concrete
> liner.
This was played up in the last season or two of "Six Feet Under." In
fact, when Nate snuffed it, his family discarded his written burial
plan and buried him "greenly" in a park because they knew he simply
hadn't updated his will to reflect his true wishes.
I'm not what most people would call an "environmentalist" in the
political sense, but this appeals greatly to me and I hope it's
available in the national cemeteries by the time it's my turn.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Louis Epstein
:
:> Called natural burial or green burial, the practice is generally
:> defined as one in which the body isn't embalmed, is placed in a
:> biodegradable casket and then is set in a grave without a concrete
:> liner.
:
: This was played up in the last season or two of "Six Feet Under." In
: fact, when Nate snuffed it, his family discarded his written burial
: plan and buried him "greenly" in a park because they knew he simply
: hadn't updated his will to reflect his true wishes.
:
: I'm not what most people would call an "environmentalist" in the
: political sense, but this appeals greatly to me and I hope it's
: available in the national cemeteries by the time it's my turn.
I'm of the opposite persuasion.
You might as well just leave your body to rot on the dungheap
if you don't believe in preservative action...I favor maximizing
resistance to decay both of the body and of any monument.(I doubt
they will ever be able to revive cryonics "patients" but being
frozen appeals to me as more preservative than burial let alone
burning).
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.
Magnus
> On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:54:58 -0500, Osama bin Cock-Squatter
>
> <l...@main.put.com> wrote:
> >You might as well just leave your body to rot on the dungheap
> >if you don't believe in preservative action...I favor maximizing
> >resistance to decay both of the body and of any monument.
>
> taken to the extreme of affecting the human birth rate is incapable of
> applying that same extreme logic to the problem of what happens if
> everyone wants their corpses to be worshipped forever.
>
> Why am I not surprised?
Why do continually post this kind of crap? Don't you know that these
ad hominem attacks go nowhere? Especially when they are directed at
someone like Louis Epstein, who is about five times smarter than you
are?
If you can't say something intelligent, just shut up and stop wasting
band-width.
magnus
pat.peeve
> On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:29:18 -0700, The Drunken Babykiller Licking
> Ellsworth's Asshole <robertc...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sep 18, 10:09 pm, Terry del Fuego <t_del_fu...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:54:58 -0500, Osama bin Cock-Squatter
>>>
>>> <l...@main.put.com> wrote:
>>>> You might as well just leave your body to rot on the dungheap
>>>> if you don't believe in preservative action...I favor maximizing
>>>> resistance to decay both of the body and of any monument.
>>> So the guy who's worried that acceptance of homosexuality will be
>>> taken to the extreme of affecting the human birth rate is incapable of
>>> applying that same extreme logic to the problem of what happens if
>>> everyone wants their corpses to be worshipped forever.
>>>
>>> Why am I not surprised?
>> Why do continually post this kind of crap? Don't you know that these
>> ad hominem attacks go nowhere?
>
> were homosexual we would be extinct in short order." My comment that
> your new best friend is "the guy who's worried that acceptance of
> homosexuality will be taken to the extreme of affecting the human
> just quoted (feel free to Google more if you lack a life) and which I
> in fact _toned_down_ by speaking of the birth rate rather than
> extinction. My assertion that he "is incapable of applying the same
> extreme logic to the problem of what happens if everyone wants their
> resistance to decay both of the body and any monument." You know,
> what he _said_ and which you also quoted above.
>
> Or is "Why am I not surprised?" an attack in your eyes?
>
>> Especially when they are directed at someone like Louis
>> Epstein, who is about five times smarter than you are?
>
> "smarter" than I by any traditionally accepted method. He's also
> completely, hopelessly, utterly batshit crazy. If you wish to get
> bent out of shape because I won't swallow his crap without throwing a
> tantrum, you might get more sympathy by pointing out the obvious fact
> that I'm literally making fun of the handicapped.
>
>> If you can't say something intelligent, just shut up and stop wasting
>> band-width.
>
> even getting into the (admittedly quite rare) times I've attempted to
> engage you in relatively non-flamacious debate...every single one of
> which you've ignored, no matter how calmly or directly the questions
> were asked. If you were honest, you'd have to admit that the *only*
> posts of mine to which you *ever* respond are the lowest, stupidest,
> most profane flames (or, as in this case, the ones you drunkenly
> perceive as such).
>
> By the way, have you noticed how few other people bother to respond to
> my horseshit any more? I think the smart ones and even some of the
> dumb ones realized a long time ago that I'm not worth it. That I can
> still yank your chain is like a ray of sunshine directly from Heaven
> to me.
>
LOL. pwnage.
Bob Feigel
<t_del...@hotmail.com> magnanimously proffered:
>By the way, have you noticed how few other people bother to respond to
>my horseshit any more? I think the smart ones and even some of the
>dumb ones realized a long time ago that I'm not worth it. That I can
>still yank your chain is like a ray of sunshine directly from Heaven
>to me.
Respond? Not on your life.
But I sure wouldn't want to miss one of your incisive and penetrating
missives either.
A carving knife can be incisive and penetrating can't it?
--
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
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Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
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