Going green even after you draw your last breath is becoming more popular in Canada and elsewhere.
Over the past 20 years, the number of people opting for a natural burial – a non-traditional burial designed to minimize their ecological impact – has increased greatly as more people have discovered the benefits of the sustainable after-life practice.
While other countries jurisdiction and have embraced the practice of natural burials, Ontario and Sarnia-Lambton have fallen behind when it comes to offering the option.
So says Climate Action Sarnia-Lambton’s Allan McKeown, who spoke about natural burials during a meeting of the Seaway Kiwanis Club at the Sarnia Golf and Curling Club on March 8.
“If you love nature, then you should love natural burials,” said McKeown. “(With natural burials), our final act is giving back to the Earth.”
He said the practice of natural burials is not new. It’s been around since humans have existed and is still practiced by people in the Jewish and Muslim faiths. No embalming fluids are used, and the remains are placed in the ground. If a helmet is used, it is typically made of bio-degradable material.
In Canada and many other western countries, over the past century the trend of disposing human remains has been limited to two options: a casket burial or cremation, neither of which are environmentally friendly, McKeown said.
“The traditional burial is expensive, it uses a wooden casket and that wood is normally treated with toxic condoms,” he said. “In many cases the casket doesn’t even contact earth, it goes into a cement vault which is capped after the service and covered with soil.
“You’re not even going in the ground, you’re essentially going into concrete liners.”
The reason for this is that the cemetery lands would start sinking without the concrete, he said.
“It’s not a very natural process at all when you think about it.”
But cremation is by no means a better option when it comes to sustainability, McKeown said.
“Cremation is the most popular option, but it’s not a green option,” he said. “Cremation uses natural gas, and a body takes two to four hours to cremate, which means a lot of carbon released into the atmosphere.”
So if someone in Sarnia-Lambton is looking for alternatives, what are their options?
Not much at the moment, McKeown said, though other more ecologically-friendly methods are popping up in other places.
McKeown described several more sustainable methods of disposing of bodies, such as water cremation (the body is put into a steel cylinder, which is filled with water and potassium hydroxide, then heated until only bones remain); composting (body is covered with woodchips, alfalfa and straw and left for 30 days – compost can be scattered wherever you want); and a process called Promise, offered in Sweden and Scotland (body is put into a device, frozen to -196 degrees Celsius, which turns the body into bio-degradable crystals).
In terms of where to put remains, there is an acute shortage of natural burial grounds in Canada, McKeown said. While there are over 300 such sites in the UK and over 200 in the US, Canada has only two standalone natural burial grounds, both of which are located in British Columbia. Kingston’s city council has passed a motion to create the first natural burial cemetery in the province, but few other municipalities have done the same.
Hybrid cemeteries are a perhaps more viable option for Ontario communities, McKeown said. These cemeteries mix traditional burial grounds with a green section for natural burials. One benefit of creating hybrid cemeteries is they can be included in already existing cemeteries and proponents would not have to pay the provincial fee of $160,000 required to open a new cemetery.
Ontario municipalities such as Niagara Falls, Picton, Cobourg and Waterloo already have hybrid cemeteries and more are on the way, McKeown said, though it hasn’t reached the radar of municipal officials in Sarnia-Lambton just yet.
“(In natural burial grounds) the body also only goes down three feet, half the depth in normal cemeteries, because three feet underground is where you get maximum decomposition.” McKeown said.
Rather than simply having a field with headstones, these green grounds can include a variety of features that increase its utility both environmentally and aesthetically, including pollinator gardens, bird houses, walking paths, memorial walls and woodlots, McKeown said.
“You don’t need to worry about headstones … and substantially there will be no harmful chemicals going into the ground and the grave can be re-used – in a natural ground you can do that, it’s a very sustainable option.”
Asked why more people haven’t advocated for a hybrid cemetery in Sarnia-Lambton, McKeown said speaking about death is still taboo for some people, while others don’t give it much thought. The funeral industry is also resistant.
“One reason is the funeral industry itself – it hasn’t been promoting this and this is a grassroots movement,” he said. “If you get a certain amount of people in the community who want this, that’s how change happens. Unfortunately, the funeral industry is reluctant to change – they don’t see it as profitable, so that’s a factor.”
Following his presentation, fellow Climate Action Sarnia-Lambton member Leslie Chekan said there is more interest in natural burials in Lambton County, and that one of the most effective ways to voice that support was register with the Natural Burial Association website at www.naturalburialassociation.ca.
“I know that Petrolia is looking at it, I was talking to a staff member there who told me it was on their radar for Hillsdale Cemetery,” Chekan said. “I offered to advocate if they need it … but as Allan said, it’s just having enough people to advocate for that choice.”
“Leslie and I participated in the Zoom sessions regarding Sarnia’s official plan when the consultants were looking for feedback,” McKeown added. “We participated in a couple of sessions and we brought up natural burial ground and the consultants didn’t know what we were talking about. We hoped it would get into the official plan – we haven’t gone to city council at this stage, but we’ll probably wait until after the election.”