Green Burial: Part 2

If you are considering a green burial, remember that most bodies that are not embalmed are placed in cold storage for some period of time until funeral arrangements may be made. Evidence suggests that prolonged periods of refrigeration greatly reduce or eliminate altogether many pathogens. Refrigeration helps to minimize the risk of such contamination.

If your green burial site is also a natural preserve, it is kept in as natural a state as possible, with little disturbance. This means that there is no use of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals that are routinely employed in the landscaping of the more commercial cemeteries. Such chemicals pollute the groundwater far more than any natural decomposition of human remains would. Also, in a natural preserve cemetery, no water is used for irrigation of lawns or shrubs and other plants. And of course, since green burial sites use no embalming, there is no danger of such chemicals escaping into the groundwater.

Some people are concerned that in a natural preserve, the wild animals might disturb the bodies. There