We don’t prefer traditional burial because of these high costs, but also because of the costs to the environment. According to reports, conventional caskets use up around 90,000 tons of metals every year, as well as 30 million feet of hardwood. Almost a million gallons of toxic embalming fluid is consumed to preserve the dead annually. Also, burial vaults make use of almost two million tons of reinforced concrete every year.

Because conventional burials hurt both the finances and the environment, there is a growing trend towards more environmentally friendly memorial choices and burial urns. This often involves burials in eco-cemeteries.

What Are Eco-Cemeteries?

Just like any cemetery, eco-cemeteries are places for burying the dead. There are, however, a number of differences that mark such cemeteries from other burial places. These differences are:

1. The body of the deceased is not preserved in toxic embalming fluid that contains formaldehyde. Also, the coffin or casket used is made from renewable or recyclable materials, or is simply wrapped in a shroud.

2. Family members dig the graves for their dead using shovels. The graves are not lined with concrete.

3. Instead of granite or manufactured stone markers, natural markers are used to set the grave apart from the others. It could be a tree planted by those left behind, or a natural stone with an engraving.

Why Eco-Cemeteries?

For many people, it makes more sense to bury their dead in eco-cemeteries. The most obvious advantage is that it is more cost-effective, given that the loved ones left behind no longer have to spend for an expensive casket and other funeral services.

Burial in these cemeteries can be looked at more natural and meaningful. You get to prepare for the final resting place of your deceased loved ones with your own hands. If you want a more cathartic release for your grief, nothing beats caring for your dead with your own hands.

Space is often not a problem in these green cemeteries. You can have your deceased loved ones side by side without any worries about space. Many of these environmentally friendly cemeteries also allow for pet burial.

Most importantly, when you turn to eco-cemeteries to bury your dead, you are giving back to the earth the life that the earth nourished and sustained. The minerals and nutrients stored in the body will decompose and enrich the soil in which it is buried. When you plant a tree as a marker for the grave, you help in sustaining more life on this earth that we live in for as long as the tree lives.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust; so the Bible says. Our lives came from the ashes of this earth. When we bury our dead in eco-cemeteries, we allow their bodies to return to the ashes of the earth and continue the cycle of life of which death is a part. Is this not a more fitting way to honor our beloved dead?