It’s fantastic that so many of us are considering our impact on the environment in our day to day lives, and for some it’s natural for these thoughts to extend to what happens to our body after we die.

You may well have come across the term ‘green’, ‘natural’ or ‘eco’ burial, which is often considered the gold standard of an eco-friendly funeral. And we are lucky to have a few choices in our local area, including Old Park Meadow near Dunmow, The Arbory Trust up at Barton Glebe in Barton, Cambridge, Brinkley Woodland Cemetery near Newmarket, and Muchwood Green Burial Ground in Ramsey, Cambridge. The Natural Death Centre has a list of natural burial grounds across the UK.

There is also GreenAcres Epping Forest in North Weald Bassett, which isn’t part of the Association of Natural Burial grounds listed above, but which is a natural burial park, and Cambridge City Crematorium has a natural burial area in the Huntingdon Road Cemetery. Each place has their own conservation policy, and is something you can look at in more detail should you want to.

But for some, this isn’t always financially accessible, in keeping with personal preferences, or practical, especially if you are wanting to take someone’s ashes back to the country they were born, or perhaps to where their family lives now.

So what can you do to make your funeral kinder to the environment, if you don’t want to go down the route of a full eco burial at a natural burial ground?

How to Make a Burial or Cremation ‘Greener’

Hold Your Service At A ‘Green’ Venue

You can still support your local natural burial ground by having the service or ceremony there, as most have a lodge or hall you can hire, followed by a cremation elsewhere, which you may or may not choose to attend (Greenacres Epping Forest, Old Park Meadow, and The Arbory Trust all have this facility).

Or, as you can hold a funeral service, or Celebration of Life service, absolutely anywhere with the owner’s permission (the venue doesn’t have to be specially licensed, just friendly and accommodating) you could approach somewhere close to you which has a strong environmental policy.

Then, Hold Your Wake or Gathering There Too

Imagine 40-50 people at a funeral. Most have travelled on their own, or possibly with a friend or partner. They might travel to the church or crematorium for the main service, then possibly to the crematorium or cemetery for the committal, followed by another venue for the wake or gathering afterwards. 40-50 people, each making 3 separate journeys just for the funeral, plus getting there and getting home again at the end of the day.

Simply reducing the locations involved during a funeral can have a massive environmental impact.

Natural Fibres

Choose for them to be dressed in natural fibres as much as possible such as cotton, wool, linen, or silk, or go for a ‘halfway house’ with semi-synthetic fibres such as viscose and rayon. Synthetic fibres melt to form plastic beads, microplastics, which will end up mingled in the ashes and then introduced into the environment when you choose to scatter them. 

Go Barefoot!

Most footwear isn’t allowed during the cremation process due to rubber soles and PVC fabrics, which can produce some pretty nasty pollutants, so going barefoot or wearing a super snazzy pair of their favourite cotton or bamboo socks is the way to go!

Say No to Embalming

Nowadays, embalming isn’t really necessary unless someone needs to be repatriated, as your chosen Funeral Director (if you’re using one) or hospital mortuary should have the appropriate refrigerated storage in place. Formaldehyde is one of the key chemicals used during the process, a highly toxic poison, held in suspension by methanol, and the simple choice of saying no to embalming reduces the release of these chemicals into the environment, both during the process of embalming itself (which is actually incredibly invasive) and later during the decomposition or cremation process.

You can still go to see someone who hasn’t been embalmed, and your Funeral Director should be able to support you and explain any natural changes which have occurred since death.

Choose a Natural Casket If Possible

If you can afford it, choose a natural coffin such as wicker, willow, bamboo, seagrass, or wool. Not only are they beautiful to look at and warm and tactile to touch, but they are made from renewable sources which are highly efficient during the cremation process, as they are in themselves a fuel source, meaning the cremator needs to draw on less fuel (usually natural gas) to complete the process.

Made in the UK

Choosing any coffin, casket or shroud made in the UK will have a lower carbon footprint, as it won’t have had to travel as far once made and at its heaviest. Simples!

Eco Paints For Colourful Caskets

If you’d like a painted coffin, choose one which is painted in eco-friendly paint to reduce the amount of synthetic chemicals released during the cremation process or decomposition. And ideally, avoid coffins with a glitter finish, as glitter is a microplastic. 

Let’s Talk About Cardboard Coffins

For many people, when they think of an eco-friendly funeral, a cardboard coffin is one of the first things to spring to mind.

Cardboard coffins are light, which means they have less of a carbon footprint during transportation, and are made from a renewable source, which makes them a great eco choice… though as with everything, they are not perfect. 

Cardboard, by the nature of its manufacture, contains a lot of glue, so look for those made up of cornstarch or other more natural glues if possible.

If printed with a design, the inks used can release chemicals into the environment, so look out for those printed with environmentally-friendly inks. And if you wish to write messages, or create your own design all over the coffin, which is one of the fantastic options with cardboard coffins, you could consider the types of inks and glues you choose to use.

And they are not necessarily the greenest choice if going for a cremation. 

A more traditional wood or chipboard coffin acts as a fuel source during the cremation process, meaning that less energy is required from the cremator itself, which are usually fueled by natural gas, compared to a cardboard coffin, which burns much quicker and therefore requires more additional energy from the cremator to complete the process.

However… after speaking to the team at one of my local crematoriums, the day of the cremation makes a difference. A cremator is usually turned on at the start of the week, and continues to warm up as the week goes on. By the end of the week, the cremator is running at its hottest, and therefore most efficient. So a cardboard coffin being cremated at the end of the week is more environmentally friendly than one cremated at the beginning.

Flowers

Flowers will, of course, biodegrade, so are easily recycled via the compost heap, or go towards feeding the local wildlife at the crematorium or burial ground if left behind. Yet there are still so many ways you can tweak your floral tributes to consider the environmental impact. 

Asking your florist not to use traditional floral Oasis is a big one – traditional Oasis foam is made from synthetic, non-recyclable, non-reusable plastics, a combination of phenols, carbon black, and formaldehyde, making it toxic to people and the environment. There are so many alternatives now, including biodegradable foam alternatives such as Agra Wool and TerraBricks, willow and moss bases, and chicken wire.

Choosing flowers which are in season to be the basis of your tributes is another really easy thing to do, though of course if they had a favourite flower this may not always feel like an appropriate option. You can also choose to use flowers or cuttings from their garden or allotment, or your local flower farm, rather than imported flowers at all.

Another thing you can do is use potted plants which can be taken home or shared afterwards, rather than formal arrangements made of cut stems.

Memorials and Biodegradable Urns

By choosing to plant a tree or rose bush in their memory instead of a more traditional stone memorial, you are helping support the local ecosystem, providing food sources and shelter for the local wildlife. 

You’re welcome to plant whatever you like in your own garden, and Gardens of Remembrance in churches, crematoriums, or council-owned cemeteries will all have their own policies of what they allow to be planted within the grounds. Natural burial grounds will have a selection of trees or plants they allow as part of their own conservation policy and land management, so it is always best to check before you make an investment.

It is usual for ashes to be returned to you in a biodegradable cardboard box, with their ashes in a paper bag inside, which you can then arrange to be transferred to a different container should you wish, such as an urn or scatter tube. But you can simply use the box they are returned to you in, should you wish.

There are a range of biodegradable urns out there, including urns which are also planters, allowing you to inter their ashes and your chosen tree, bush, or flower at the same time, and urns which contain seeds which will grow into a tree in the years to come.

Little Steps To A Greener Funeral

These are just a selection of ideas and things you can consider when arranging a funeral, whether making plans for how you’d like your own to be, or when planning one for someone else.

Not all options may suit your preferences, beliefs, or the type of service you’re planning, but they will hopefully give you a few ideas of little things you can do which can make a difference. And if we all consider the little things, then they all have the potential to add up to a big difference.