Green to the end

Janet McCausland, executive director of the Natural Burial Association, explains the concept of natural burials at the recent Green Living show in Toronto. (Peter Hadzipetros/CBC)

You've done your bit for the environment during your lifetime - minimizing to whatever extent possible your consumption of non-renewable resources and your discharge of stuff that is bad for the air we breathe and the water we drink.

You know you won't last forever, that someday, you will check out for good as a consumer of the planet's resources. You want that checkout process to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

Well, you do have options, but you've got to do a little legwork — long before your final trip to the hereafter.

If you're looking for a traditional burial, you can insist that your body not be embalmed. Embalming fluid is typically a mixture of chemicals such as formaldehyde, methanol, ethanol and other solvents. Its purpose is to temporarily prevent your body from decomposing so people can see you lying in your casket at least until you are buried.

While formaldehyde — or other chemicals — won't harm you after you're dead, it can present a bit of a problem for the living. The International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded in 1995 that formaldehyde probably causes cancer in humans.

You can pick an old-fashioned plain pine box. A Lindsay, Ont.-based company, Northern Casket Ltd., is offering a line of coffins with the environment in mind. The company offers eight different EnviroCaskets that are made of wood that's grown locally. They contain no metal parts and the fabrics used in the interiors are all made from undyed, unbleached cotton and cellulose materials.

The coffins are finished in either natural walnut oil or beeswax — not the traditional petrochemical products such as lacquer, varnish, urethanes and varathanes that release some harmful emissions when buried or cremated.

All materials used in the casket should degrade within 60 years, assuming that the casket is not placed in a concrete vault.

Minimizing your impact on the environment after you die

• Choose not to be embalmed.
• Donate your organs to continue life.
• If you're being buried, request that your casket not be placed into a concrete vault.
• For a casket, choose a simple box made from local sustainable wood or cardboard.
• For cremation, ask that your teeth be removed to avoid the release into the atmosphere of mercury from fillings.
• Offset the emissions it takes to cremate you with carbon credits.
• In lieu of flowers, ask that donations be made to a land conservation organization

Source: Natural Burial Association

But if you want one, you can't buy one directly. You'll have to find a funeral director who carries the product. Northern Casket first introduced the line about 10 years ago, but company vice-president Caley Ferguson says it's tough to get new product into funeral directors' showrooms. Ferguson used the recent Green Living show in Toronto as a first attempt to appeal directly to the public.

"You have two options in this business," Ferguson told CBC News Online. "You either have to get the funeral directors to carry the product or persuade the public to ask for it."

Ferguson said response to the EnviroCasket at the three-day show exceeded his expectations.

Or you could take it a few steps further and opt for a "natural burial" — but not in Canada. The natural burial movement began in Britain in the early 1990s, and now there are more than 200 sites in the United Kingdom and five in the United States where your body can be returned to nature. Bodies are not embalmed. They are buried in either a simple casket or a shroud in a protected green space. Headstones are not permitted, but flat indigenous stones can be engraved and used to mark your final resting place.

Currently, the Natural Burial Association is trying to secure several sites in British Columbia and Ontario for natural burials, but it's tough to get the required zoning for new burial grounds.

"Municipalities tend to be a bit queasy about it," Janet McCausland, the association's executive director, told CBC News Online. "The death-care industry is also pretty resistant. Natural burials cut into their margins."

McCausland adds that a natural burial can be appealing to a lot of people because it reduces energy and resource consumption, and is far less toxic than a traditional burial. It's more in line with the values of people who seek environmentally friendly options.

The human body normally decomposes within 12 years. In a natural burial, all that's left in the ground is a skeleton. In a traditional burial, it can take decades for everything to break down, especially after a body has been embalmed — and traces of toxic chemicals may leech into the soil and the groundwater.

"Cemeteries should be for the living," McCausland said. "By setting aside one that accommodates natural burials, we're creating a spiritual place."