Green, Natural, Return

American demand for green burial — also known as natural burial — is increasing, and the reasons are not mysterious. Cultural priorities are shifting, environmental concerns are sharpening, and economics are doing their usual quiet work underneath. People want to conserve: both where they are and what they have.

To understand the appeal, start with what it replaces. Since the Civil War, embalming has been the primary method of body preparation in the United States. Cremation has grown steadily as an alternative, but the social desire for viewing — for access to the body, however brief — remains real. What has changed is the calculation: many now feel that short-term accessibility is not worth the risks and impacts of long-term preparation.

Those risks are chemical. Formaldehyde and phenol are among the fluids used in preservation, and there are real concerns about what they do to the people who handle them — funeral workers, family members — and to the land itself, leaching into groundwater over time. Debates continue about the actual levels of risk and impact. But the concern is real, and where concern is real, it belongs in the death care conversation.

The worry extends past the body to what goes into the ground around it. Caskets, vaults, grave liners — their materials break down over time and become environmental concerns of their own. The modern American burial is, in this sense, a small construction project. It leaves construction's footprint.

So what is green burial? At its simplest: interment that allows for physical preservation without the addition of possibly toxic embalming chemicals and without burial containers. The body is washed and dressed. No bodily fluids are removed; none are added. No casket, no vault — a simple biodegradable shroud instead.

The green cemetery carries the logic all the way through. Many go as far as to be headstone-free, letting rocks, trees, or other natural elements serve as markers. The experience extends from immediate body preparation through ongoing ambiance. The view, quite literally, is of bodies returning to nature.

Then there is the money. While exact savings amounts are not published, available estimates suggest that green burial costs a quarter to a half of a traditional burial — similar savings to cremation, without requiring the destruction of the body. For the many families drawn to cremation primarily by cost, that matters enormously.

There are now almost 500 green cemeteries in the United States and Canada. Some are sections within larger, more traditional sites; others are dedicated green parks. The Green Burial Council maintains the full list, with contact information.

And, a closing note regarding language...

Let's notice the work that these words are doing. Green. Natural. Return. Each both describes a practice and makes a promise at the same time.

"Green" establishes the moral authority of environmentalism. "Natural" gently creates opposition, positioning everything else as unnatural — a rhetorical move worth pausing on, given that embalming was itself once sold as the natural, respectful choice. And "return" is the softest verb available for what is happening: not disposal, not decay, but a going-back.

Green, natural, return. It's as if the body were repaying a loan. The ultimate homegoing.

Language has the power to help the living face death. In a death-adverse society, the shift to green burial dialogue is doing necessary work. But it is worth asking, do you find this vocabulary comforting? Are the words "green," "natural," and "return" an honest reflection on process or a distraction from the ultimate topic, death?