Natural burial is the interment of the body of a dead person in the soil or a body of water in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition but allows the body to be naturally recycled. It is an alternative to burial methods and funerary customs. The body may be prepared without chemical preservatives or disinfectants, such as embalming fluid, which are designed to inhibit the microbial decomposers that break the body down. It may be buried in a biodegradable coffin, casket, or shroud. The grave does not use a burial vault or outer burial container that would prevent the body's contact with soil. The grave should be shallow enough to allow microbial activity similar to that found in composting. Natural burial grounds have been used throughout human history and are used in many countries.
History Although natural burials present themselves as a relatively modern concept in Western societies, they have been practiced for many years in different cultures out of "religious obligation, necessity, or tradition". For example, many Muslims perform natural burial out of a duty to their religion. Others, like those in African countries, bury naturally because they cannot afford the cost of embalming. In China, the Cultural Revolution saw the popularity of burial rise over cremation. Truly natural burials also include the burial of bodies within tree roots in the Amazon rainforest in Peru, and burying the deceased in the Tanzanian bush. According to Nature, the earliest known human burial dates back to the Middle Stone Age (about 74,000 to 82,000 years ago) of a toddler in what is now Kenya. Natural burial has been practiced for thousands of years, but has been interrupted in modern times by new methods such as vaults, liners, embalming, and mausoleums that mitigate the decomposition process. In the late 19th century Sir Francis Seymour Hayden proposed "earth to earth burial" in a pamphlet of the same name, as an alternative to both cremation and the slow putrefaction of encased corpses.
Types The Green Burial Council (GBC) identifies three types of natural burial cemeteries:
Hybrid burial grounds Natural burial grounds Conservation burial grounds All types of natural burials – hybrid, natural, and conservation – must meet standards of "burial practice" and "customer relation" according to the GBC. More specifically, a hybrid burial ground can be certified when it forbids embalming, prohibits toxic or non-degradable chemicals in the burial process, and mandates natural burial advertising. The second type, natural burial grounds, must fulfill the requirements of hybrid burial grounds as well as require "site planning" and a survey of the land that stakes out important areas for preservation. Natural burial grounds also need a deed restriction. As for conservation burial grounds, restoration of at least two to four hectares of land and an official draft of a conservation easement are additional requirements.
Memorialization Natural burial grounds employ a variety of methods of memorialization. Families that bury their loved ones in nature preserves can record the GPS coordinates of the location where they are buried, without using physical markers. Some natural burial sites use flat wooden plaques, or a name written on a natural rock. Many families plant trees, or other native plants near the grave to provide a living memorial.
Environmental considerations While natural burials tend to prevent the environmental damage done by conventional techniques, some practitioners go further by using burial fees to acquire land to restore native habitat and save endangered species. Such land management techniques are called "conservation burials". In addition to restoration ecology, and habitat conservation projects, others have proposed alternative natural uses of the land such as sustainable agriculture and permaculture, to maintain the burial area in perpetuity. Landscaping methods may accelerate or slow down the decomposition rate of bodies. Natural burials sometimes do not use any machinery or heavy equipment for digging the grave site. Instead, the grave sites may be dug by hand.
Environmental issues with conventional burials Each year, 22,500 cemeteries across the United States bury approximately:
70,000 m3 of hardwood caskets 82,000 kg of steel caskets 12,700 kg of steel vaults 2,500 kg of copper and bronze caskets 1,484,000 kg of reinforced concrete vaults 3,200 m3 of embalming fluid, which usually includes formaldehyde. When formaldehyde is used for embalming, it breaks down, and the chemicals released into the ground after burial and ensuing decomposition are inert. The problems with the use of formaldehyde and its constituent components in natural burial are the exposure of mortuary workers to it and the killing of the decomposer microbes necessary for breakdown of the body in the soil. Natural burial promotes the restoration of poor soil areas and allows for long-term reuse of the land. Coffins (tapered-shoulder shape) and caskets (rectangular) are made from a variety of materials, most of them not biodegradable; 80–85% of the caskets sold for burial in North America in 2006 were made of stamped steel. Solid wood and particle board (chipboard) coffins with hardwood veneers account for 10–15% of sales, and fibreglass and alternative materials, such as woven fiber, make up the rest. In Australia, 85–90% of coffins are solid wood and particle board. Most traditional caskets in the UK are made from chipboard covered in a thin veneer. Handles are usually plastic designed to look like brass. Chipboard requires glue to stick the wood particles together. Some glues that are used, such as those that contain formaldehyde, are feared to cause pollution when they are burned during cremation or when degrading in the ground. However, not all engineered wood products are produced using formaldehyde glues. Caskets and coffins are often manufactured using exotic and even endangered species of wood, and are designed to prevent decomposition. While there are generally no restrictions on the type of coffin used, most sites encourage the use of environmentally friendly coffins made from materials like cane, bamboo, wicker or fiberboard. A weight bearing shroud is another option.
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