2024-07-25 22:04:25
These are just a few examples of how ideas of ecology and sustainability are changing the way we approach funerals. In Lithuania, the trend of sustainable funerals is beginning to emerge, albeit timidly.
Sustainable funerals: why and what?
The need to think about more sustainable funerals, experts say, comes from realizing the environmental damage some burial practices cause.
Smithsonian Magazine reports that more than 16 million US burials are used each year. liters of embalming liquid, which later seeps into groundwater, more than 566 thousand. cubic meters of wood and 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete, which has a significant impact on the environment.
After learning such statistics, more and more Americans are looking for alternatives. People interviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times said that they would like to choose an organic burial for many reasons, but above all, they see it as maintaining respect for the environment, even when saying goodbye to a loved one.
There are not a few people who think the same way about eco-funerals. The US National Association of Funeral Directors declares that even 60 percent Americans are interested in green burial options.
True, the quest to bury a loved one in an ecological way is not always easy. The family, who lives in Los Angeles, revealed to the Los Angeles Times that they knew they would face challenges as soon as they started taking care of it.
“The prices of the most common services are clearly indicated on the website of the funeral home. However, organic options had serious drawbacks. Natural burial cemeteries were located far away, and human composting, a process that speeds decomposition and turns a body into nutrient-rich soil within a month, is not yet legal in California. The funeral home offered to send my deceased mother to Washington State, where body composting is legal. It seemed to me that burial options that required a flight of several hours or a drive of three hours did not correspond to a green ideology. Our final choice was local cremation,” the interviewer told the publication about his experience.
The ideas of ecological and sustainable funerals are also spreading rapidly in Europe. True, here, unlike in the USA, Australia or New Zealand, embalming liquid is used only in the most necessary cases. Only the British and Irish use it more often.
According to Tomas Urbš, the manager of Tylos namai funeral home in Šiauliai, there are currently two main options in most of Europe – traditional burial or cremation, but alternatives are already emerging and gaining popularity.
“For example, the UK’s largest funeral provider now offers water cremation. This is a process also known as aquamation. During it, the soft tissues of the body turn into liquid and only a fragile, white skeleton remains, which is later turned into powder, which is poured into an urn,” explains T. Urbšas.
During aquamation, the body is placed in a special steel container filled with water and an alkaline solution. It is heated to about 160 °C and the pressure in the vessel reaches about 8-10 atmospheres. After about 3-4 hours, the human body breaks it down into a mixture of amino acids, peptides, sugars and salt.
“Another eco-funeral trend is coming to France from Germany – sacred or ash forests are becoming popular. More and more people are choosing not only cremation, but also burying their ashes under a tree. The city of Nancy even offered to bury the ashes of its dead residents for free in this type of forest, without using flowers, wreaths and monuments,” says T. Urbšas.
He adds that there are more diverse concepts of ecological burial in Europe. Here in Italy, the company “Capsula Mundi” offers a biodegradable egg-shaped urn made of starch, bamboo or wicker. The ashes of the deceased or the body itself can be placed inside through a wide opening, which is then closed. Later, the “egg” is buried like a seed, and a tree pre-selected by the deceased is planted over it.
Paris aims to become climate neutral by 2050, 2019 opened an ecological cemetery. They allow crude coffins made of wood, cardboard and other biodegradable materials. Instead of tombstones, wooden markers are used.
Church officials in the United Kingdom are even considering endorsing the process of body composting, or teramation, where the dead are placed in airtight containers and wrapped in a mixture of alfalfa plants and sawdust. The heat accelerates microbiological activity and after about 30-50 days the body is transformed into organic matter. Bones and teeth do not break down in this process, so they are crushed separately with specialized equipment and then mixed with the rest of the soil. The new soil is left for another 30 days to stabilize and dry before it is handed over to the family of the deceased.
In Lithuania, innovations are approached with caution
T. Urbšas claims that the demand for exclusively “green” funerals in Lithuania is not great yet. The most common ecological accent is the choice of a coffin or an urn.
“When it comes to graves, you can definitely see more and more different ones than the traditional ones and some of them can definitely be called organic,” says the interviewer.
According to him, in principle, the perception of burial in our country has not yet changed drastically, because Lithuanians, like most Europeans, are quite conservative in this area and reluctant to introduce innovations.
“Any innovation in the field of funerals takes a long time to gain recognition. Therefore, the ideas of green funerals are still circulating only at the level of ideas and whispers. Look how long it took for our compatriots to accept cremation, which even the Pope in his time indicated as an acceptable way to send the deceased to eternity,” emphasized T. Urbšas.
Speaking about the ways that funerals can be made green, the interviewer pointed out several key aspects that should be taken into account. Some of them can be implemented really easily.
“Sometimes everything is simple and there is no need for drastic decisions at all. I would think that if you are considering the most sustainable funeral possible, you should first avoid disposable products as much as possible, use less synthetic products and decorations that are not biodegradable. They should be replaced with natural and environmentally degradable ones. In addition, it would be good to use as many local products and materials as possible and generally follow the principle of giving back to nature,” said T. Urbšas.
According to him, due to greater innovations in sustainable burial in Lithuania, it is likely that even certain laws or procedures should be changed. However, according to him, perhaps it is not even necessary, because there is a certain paradox.
“It is interesting that truly sustainable funerals were held in Lithuania not so long ago, when people living in villages made coffins from boards themselves, used live flowers, real wax candles, and marked the grave of the deceased with a wooden cross. It seems that everything moves in a spiral and after turning the circle we returned to the same position, where we look back at the things that happened before and understand that at least some of them were correct”, concluded T. Urbšas.
2024-07-25 22:04:25