Green funerals are cheaper, easier on the planet and increasingly an end-of-life option

Shrouded body prepared for green burial.
(Larkspur Conservation photo)

Americans may not be able to choose how and when they die, but they can make arrangements for what happens to their body afterward. For many people, the challenges involved in creating and paying for interment have led them away from traditional funeral preparations such as embalming, a casket and a plot of land. "More Americans are choosing burials in which everything is biodegradable," reports Paula Span of The New York Times.

Although a consumer survey conducted by the National Funeral Directors Association "found that fewer than 10% of respondents would prefer a green burial (compared to 43% favoring cremation and 24% opting for conventional burial), more than 60% said they would be interested in exploring green and natural alternatives," Span writes.

While some survey participants wanted to be buried naturally because it's environmentally friendly, "many survey participants attributed their interest in green burial to its lower cost," Span explains. "The median price of a funeral with burial in 2023 was about $10,000, not including the cemetery plot or a monument." Cremation requires fossil fuels and costs roughly $6,300.

Green burial expenses do depend on location, but they are generally cheaper than traditional burial and cremation costs. Span reports, "About 40 miles outside Nashville, a green burial at Larkspur Conservation costs $4,000, including the gravesite and just about everything else, except, if the family wants one, a flat, engraved native stone."

As one might expect, a green funeral is held in the woods where family and friends "tend to walk the trail to the burial site wearing denim and hiking boots, not black suits," Span adds. In some cases, mourners help lower the body into the ground and help shovel dirt over the grave. 

John Christian Phifer, Larkspur’s founder, gave Span a list of green funeral benefits: "No chemical embalming, no steel casket, no concrete vault. . . . It’s what keeps forests from becoming subdivisions."

Final resting choices include green burials, water cremation and human composting -- in addition to traditional options

The Forest Conservation Burial Ground in Ashland, Oregon, is a
green burial site. (Green Burial Council photo via Herald-Leader)

Ash and casket burials aren't the only final resting choices. Depending on state laws, water cremation, green burials and even human composting are options, reports Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Nationally, cremation has become more popular. The process "uses flame and heat to reduce a body to ash and bone fragments. The brittle bone fragments are then put in a machine to pulverize them into pieces, usually no bigger than an eighth of an inch," Estep writes. "The deceased person is placed in the cremator in a flammable container such as wood, wicker or rigid cardboard. The process of cremation typically takes two to two and a half hours. The average weight of the remains of a cremated adult is four to six pounds."

Other alternatives include green burials where the deceased is put "into the ground in a shroud or other biodegradable container — or no container — without being embalmed. Supporters see green burial as better for the environment," Estep reports. "Another method of disposition is called alkaline hydrolysis, or water cremation. As the name indicates, the deceased person is placed in a watertight container with water and alkaline chemicals that are heated. The process breaks down the body into a sterile solution that can be put down a drain, and the bones are pulverized as in flame cremation."

Natural organic reduction, or human composting, is legal in a few states. Estep explains, "In that process, a person’s body is put in a container with materials such as hay, straw and wood ships that help turn the body into soil, according to a document explaining the law in Oregon. The process takes about about four to six weeks, with additional time needed to dry the soil."

And finally, is it legal to be buried in your own backyard? It depends. Sidney Fogle, executive director of the Funeral Directors Association of Kentucky, told Estep, “People bury on private property all the time." Estep reports, ". . . there may be city or county ordinances that prevent it, but in the absence of those prohibitions, it is legal for people to be buried on their own property, Fogle said. . . . It would be best for a funeral home to handle the burial, however. One reason is that the state and other agencies, such as the Social Security Administration, are supposed to be notified of deaths, and funeral homes know how to complete that process."

Walmart and similar big-box stores win the pandemic with one-stop shopping; some small, rural retailers in trouble

Walmart and other big-box stores like Target and Home Depot have reported strong third-quarter earnings, The Economist reports.

Simeon Gutman of Morgan Stanley told the magazine (which calls itself a newspaper but is fully digital) that such companies get a huge edge from e-commerce, and can draw from "diverse, global supply chains," to keep products in stock and allow shoppers the convenience of one-stop shopping. That's especially appealing during a pandemic when people are trying to avoid unnecessary trips. 

Growth in retail sales overall is slowing, Mitchell Hartman reports for Marketplace. Retail sales grew less than a third of 1 percent in October, reflecting a gain much weaker than expected and much weaker than September's figures, according to newly released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Many small retailers in rural areas, who had a harder time accessing federal aid, are having an especially difficult time. Several rural retailers in Garrison, N.D., especially restaurateurs, said it's hard to stay in business when the state orders limit indoor seating, P.J. Walker reports for KX News in Bismarck.

A Garrison florist said her store was doing better than expected, Walker reports, because more people are sending flowers to funerals for covid-19 victims and isolated loved ones in nursing homes.

Funerals important to rural communities but restricted during pandemic; writer shares his experience with a Zoom funeral

Funerals are important community events, especially in rural areas, allowing friends and family the chance to to say goodbye to their loved ones and support each other through a difficult time, as Donna Kallner wrote for The Daily Yonder in May.

But funerals can help spread the coronavirus; two funerals in rural Georgia in early March did just that, turning southwest Georgia into a pandemic hotspot. With restrictions or bans on funerals (along with other public gatherings), some Americans are turning to the same piece of technology that helps them work at home to help them mourn together.

Jeremy N Smith recounts his experience attending a funeral via Zoom in a recent piece for Slate: "I had no idea what to expect. That phrase—'Zoom funeral'—sounds so tacky and degrading. Who would come? How would it work? What would people wear? Would we be gathering respectfully to mourn a loved one, or slouch on our respective couches, alone together, arguing with other family members at home about how to position the phone, tablet, or laptop screen, with the cat mewling to be fed?"

But Smith logged in, wearing a suit and tie but no shoes, and saw his great uncle Larry, who had died of covid-19, on the screen in a closed coffin at the mausoleum. His uncle's son, his spouse, and the rabbi (all wearing masks) were the only ones there in person and the rabbi sat more than six feet away from the couple. More than 50 households joined the service, talking among themselves as they waited for the service to start, like at any normal funeral.

As different family members shared stories and read Scripture, "I laughed and cried, embarrassed but grateful that I could get up and grab a roll of toilet paper when my scant supply of tissues ran out," Smith writes. He marveled at the fact that, through this Zoom funeral, he was able to meet a host of second cousins he had never been introduced to, "virtually but very much face-to-face, and in the intimacy of our living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and home offices instead of a more alien public setting. Close enough to see the books on one another’s shelves, the art on our walls, and the photos on our mantel. Close enough to meet each other’s eyes."

In some ways, a Zoom funeral might be better than the traditional service, Smith writes. He doubts he would have been able to attend his uncle's funeral in Florida under traditional circumstances, but "here I was home and with Larry—and at the homes of my extended family. The Zoom funeral left me feeling much more connected to everyone involved—and to everyone else who has lost a loved one during this pandemic. And it made me appreciate the ways technology like Zoom can make clearer our shared experiences—how it can literally show us all the other lives—and deaths—happening one 'square' over.

No mail delivery Wed. out of respect for George H.W. Bush, Postal Service says; many newspapers will be delayed

Wednesday's national day of mourning for former President George H.W. Bush, declared by President Trump, will include suspension of almost all mail delivery and closure of post offices, "to honor his vast contributions to our country," the U.S. Postal Service announced today. The service did likewise for the funerals for Ronald Reagan in 2004 and Gerald Ford in 2007.

USPS said it will deliver Priority Mail and Express Mail, and make "limited package delivery consistent with our peak-season Sunday schedule." It said it would fulfill scheduled package pickups and collect mail from boxes in front of post offices and "high-volume boxes that have a potential to overflow, while other collections will be suspended."

Newspapers' drop shipments will be accepted, but "mail verification (weighing and acceptance) will not be available until Thursday," the National Newspaper Association advised its members, suggesting that papers contact their local postal officials. Many weekly papers mail on Wednesdays. USPS said its call center will be "in operation but may have reduced staffing."

All federal offices and courts will be closed, as will the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and some banks.

Police-escorted funeral processions fading away in small towns

While large cities have been abandoning police escorts for funeral processions for several years, the trend is coming to smaller cities and towns during the recession. "The funeral cortège, a staple of mourning in the USA for generations, is rolling up against modern realities," Larry Copeland of USA Today reports. Concerns about staffing, cost and officer safety forced police in Gulfport, Miss., to limit processions to only five cars. "We could either limit the number of vehicles, or not do (funeral escorts) at all," Lt. Brian Smith, head of the city's traffic unit, told Copeland.

Liability concerns have also come to the forefront of the debate. Courts in Tennessee and Florida ruled that  police and funeral homes providing escorts for funeral processions can be held liable for crashes occurring  during the processions, Copeland reports. Most states require the lead vehicle in the procession to obey stop signs and traffic lights, but subsequent vehicles in the chain are not required to obey traffic laws.  That hasn't stopped many funeral processions from being cited for running red lights caught on traffic cameras. The Georgia House of Representatives is considering a law that would require camera companies to include on citations a box saying the vehicle owner was part of a funeral procession when the violation occurred.

Some smaller communities are still holding on to the tradition on a case-by-case basis, Copeland reports, and some even report an upswing in respect for the processions. "Years ago, everyone pulled to the side of the road and stopped when they saw a procession coming," Randall Earl of the National Funeral Directors Association told Copeland. "That tended to go by the wayside. I've noticed in the past few years, though, that there are more people doing that. I think part of it is because of the war, just respect for fallen soldiers." (Read more)

Rural Ky. man gets into the bird business for releases at funerals and weddings; no profit yet

"It started as a desire to have a neat prop for magic tricks," writes Sarah Hogsed of the Kentucky New Era in Hopkinsville. "But 10 years later, Charlie Beshears of Dawson Springs has turned his curiosity about homing pigeons into a full-fledged business and hobby." With a flock of 30 birds, Beshears now provides live bird releases for weddings and funerals.

The birds Beshears uses in his business look like doves but are small, white homing pigeons, which instinctively return to the place of their birth after being released. After five years in business, he has found that funerals provide the biggest demand for bird releases. "Beshears has released his doves at 30 funerals, including the memorial services for his mother and father," adds Hogsed. "Beshears customizes each ceremony to include the families' religious beliefs and preferences." He is hoping to do more weddings.

Caring for the birds takes significant time and money. Transportation and medicine both make the venture less than cost effective. "Am I in the hole? Yes," Beshear said. "Am I in it for the money? No." The full story is available on the Kentucky New Era site but requires a small fee.

Roanoke Times explores a touchy question: Should ministers evangelize at funerals and weddings?

The Rev. Kenneth Wright of First Baptist Church in Gainsboro, Va., preached during a recent funeral service. The photo by Jared Soares of The Roanoke Times illustrates a story that gets to a basic question, rarely discussed in public, about one of the most emotion-laden moments in life: Should evangelical ministers evangelize at funerals and weddings?

"In an era when church attendance in many denominations is in decline, some pastors see funerals and weddings as increasingly important venues for oratory that can border on revivalism," reports the Times' Rob Johnson. "The one place nonbelievers will step into a church in our day is at weddings and funerals," the Rev. Quigg Lawrence, pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit, an Anglican evangelical congregation near Roanoke, told Johnson.

On the other hand, "Some pastors say that although a bit of preaching is acceptable, they're wary of a message that puts pressure on guests at weddings or funerals to examine and perhaps affirm their faith then and there," Johnson writes. "After all, they reason, nonbelievers should be allowed to share grief or joy for loved ones and friends."

The Rev. Bryan Smith at First Baptist Church in Roanoke "believes that all pastors will someday have to answer to God on whether they took every chance to spread their faith," Johnson reports. "But when it comes to the standard evangelical punchline, extending an invitation for those present to either affirm their commitment to Christ, or make one for the first time, he asks permission ahead of time from the family of the deceased or the wedding couple. He's rarely denied."

Johnson has other good interviews, and a nice back-and-forth box giving pros and cons of preaching at funerals and weddings. It's a good example of how to tackle a touchy subject. To read it, click here.