Posted on 01/02/2009 8:51:35 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Green Revolution Hits Dead End In Georgia Cemetery Proposal Ms. Collins Thought Natural Burials Were a Killer Idea; Locals Saw Grave Threat
By PHILIP SHISHKIN
MACON, Ga. -- Elizabeth Collins, a gardener, birdwatcher and a self-described "renaissance woman," wanted to start a "natural" cemetery where bodies would be buried without embalming, coffins or vaults. [Elizabeth Collins]
Elizabeth Collins
She and a partner bought a plot of land here and wrote a business plan that identified pagans, "old hippies," penny pinchers, environmentalists and Muslims -- who traditionally bury the dead without caskets -- as their target market. There would be room for 7,500 customers. Dead pets would be welcome, too.
The idea didn't sit well with the living.
Many residents in this socially conservative rural patch of central Georgia worried the cemetery would contaminate their water supply. Some also objected in principle to unconventional burial practices.
So on Nov. 4, the Macon-Bibb County commissioners killed the cemetery plan by voting in a new ordinance that requires a "leak-proof casket or vault" for burials. It became one of the first legal moves against a growing brand of environmentalism that is entering the graveyard.
Advocates of natural, or "green," cemeteries say conventional burials pollute the earth with embalming chemicals, disturb the land and waste energy in the production and transport of coffins and vaults.
"People who go to Whole Foods or Wild Oats are going to expect to have green offerings in a funeral home," says Darren Crouch, whose company, Passages International, makes biodegradable funeral supplies. Mr. Crouch says sales in 2008 were up 40% from 2007.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Best post.
I vote for a Viking Burial. Would put the “Fun” in Funeral. Dunno how “green” they are, though.
I dunno about a fancy funeral, but I like a good old-fashioned Irish wake.
We had one for my grandfather (his request....). Good to get the family together, better to have a fun time when we do it.
Jeez, you beat me to it. Great minds, and all that....
And the vault idea was a way to cover up the idea that embalming is a nasty, toxic process.
Whereas, if you stick my body six feet under, with nothing but a burial cloth, then there are no side effects.
I agree with you.
I personally want to donate my body to science, cremate the rest and turn the carbon ashes into diamonds for my children.
And I’m not kidding.
I wanna go on being me once my eulogy's been read
Don't spread my ashes out to sea, don't lay me down to rest
You can put my mind at ease if you fulfill my last request
Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die
Lord, I wanna go to heaven but I don't wanna go tonight
Fill my boots up with sand, put a stiff drink in my hand
Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die
Just let my headstone be a neon sign
Let it burn in mem'ry of all of my good times
Fix me up with a manequin, just remember I like blondes
I'll be the life of the party even when I'm dead and gone
Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die
Lord, I wanna go to heaven but I don't wanna go tonight
Fill my boots up with sand, put a stiff drink in my hand
Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die
Just make your next selection and while your still in line
You can pay you last respects one quarter at a time
Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die
Lord, I wanna go to heaven but I don't wanna go tonight
Fill my boots up with sand, put a stiff drink in my hand
Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die
Oh, prop me up beside the jukebox if I die
If this is going to become popular, I suggest that when you bury Uncle Charley, “the old hippie,” you get him underground PDQ. If you think he smelled kinda gamy while
he was alive . . .
Hmmm, I always wanted my friends to hire a drift fishing boat for the day, attach a wood chipper to the stern, put me on ice with the beer and bait and hang out with their chum one last time!
It makes a lot more sense to do like natural history museums do to animal cadavers, who use insects to clean the bones of animals before displaying them.
It makes a lot more sense than using, and possibly polluting, a whole bunch of land, or using up a heck of a lot of fuel for cremation, along with the exorbitant price of embalming and coffins.
Afterward, there would just be clean, dry bones, that would take up a fraction of the space, or could be easily incinerated for ashes, and artificial parts. The dead insects could be used as fertilizer.
If it has any “ick” factor, it is not as bad as burial, which does much the same thing, but slower and with nastier insects.
I am truly coming to *hate* this bizzare cult. If they can see an environmental issue in EVERYTHING we do,, why cant i see America hating and communism in every thing they do?
I really do not understand the whole embalming, putting in a sealed casket, and burying process. Why do we do that? Why not just put the body in a shroud six feet under? The thought of trying to preserve the body chemically in a casket creeps me out.
I don’t know why. Perhaps you could ask the folks who see it as a “bizarre cult” or think of it as a hippie greenie thing.
Funny...usually I don’t agree with the hippie greenies! ;-)
I always wanted to be strapped to a depth charge myself
They picked an odd place to promote this idea — back in 1993 (IIRC) there was one heck of a flood that ran the Ocmulgee River over I-16 and coffins from Riverside Cemetery were popping out of the ground and floating downstream. I imagine that the folks in Macon don’t want to hear about any “innovative ideas” about burying folks.
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