What is green burial?
Green burial is burial that can take place without the use of formaldehyde-based embalming, metal caskets, and concrete burial vaults. It’s essentially the way most of humanity has cared for its dead for thousands of years up until the late 19th century. In some instances, green burial can also be used to facilitate ecological restoration and landscape-level conservation.
Green burial is interment without embalming, metal caskets, casket vaults or liners and often without permanent markers. An un-embalmed body may be wrapped in a shroud or in every day clothes and placed right into the ground or laid into a soft wood, wicker or biodegradable casket. Currently, there are no “green cemeteries” in Massachusetts. The closest green cemetery to Massachusetts is GreenSprings, and is located just outside of Ithaca, NY.
