Spring Grove cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio is slated to open a "green burial" section — the first of its kind in the region, according to a blog post by the Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church.
(The cemetery asked the church to take down its blog post, but you can read an archived version online here.)
While the definition of a "natural" or "green" burial varies, the general idea is to allow the body to recycle back into the earth naturally.
Green burials usually forgo chemical preservatives, such as formaldehyde (used in the embalming process), or unnecessary materials, such as metal (for caskets) and concrete (for burial vaults).
Jerry Wantz, vice president of operations at the cemetery, told Tech Insider that they don't have any specific details on the plot at the moment, and that they'd be making a more official announcement in the summer.
Either way, this marks a big step forward in the natural burial movement — and environmental stewardship. Here's why.
An outdated tradition
The ritual of burying a dead body is so deeply ingrained in religious and cultural history that few of us take a moment to question it.
But when you dig into the statistics, the process of preserving and sealing corpses into caskets and then plunging them into the ground is extremely environmentally unfriendly.
Toxic chemicals from the embalming, burial, and cremation process leach into the air and soil, and expose funeral workers to potential hazards. And maintaining the crisp, green memorial plots is extremely land-and-water-heavy.
For this reason, scientists and conservationists have been looking into more eco-friendly ways to die.
"The best way is to allow your body to feed the earth or ocean in a way that is sustainable for future generations," Susan Dobscha, a professor of marketing at Bentley University and editor of an upcoming book about the green burial industry called, "Death and a Consumer Culture," told Tech Insider via email.
The embalming process is toxic
Embalming is the process of pumping a chemical cocktail of formaldehyde, phenol, methanol, and glycerin into the body through an artery to delay the body's rate of decay. This could be used for display purposes during funerals, long-distance transportation, or for use for medical or scientific research. It is also said to give the body a life-like appearance for public viewing.
Formaldehyde is a potential human carcinogen, and can be lethal if a person is exposed to high concentrations. Its fumes can also irritate the eyes, nose, and throat. Phenol, similarly, can irritate or burn the flesh, and is toxic if ingested. Methyl alcohol and glycerin can irritate the eyes, skin, nose, and throat.
According to an article published in the Berkeley Planning Journal, more than 800,000 gallons of formaldehyde are put into the ground along with dead bodies every year in the US. That's enough to fill one and a quarter Olympic-sized swimming pools each year.
Burials waste a lot of materials
According to the Berkeley Planning Journal, conventional burials in the US every year use 30 million board feet of hardwoods, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, 104,272 tons of steel, and 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete.
The amount of casket wood alone could build several thousand 2,400-square-foot single-family homes.
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