Source: New Sunday Times
Date: 31.5.2009
Woven willow and seagrass caskets. | 
Organic interactions in the soil allow EcoUrns to dissolve into water within three years of burial. |
Going green has become not just a way of life, but in death, too, in some parts of the world.
And it is a growing trend.
Green burials which allow people to be laid to rest in a wood or meadow are fast catching on in the United States.
In Britain, eco-friendly cemeteries have multiplied by 20 fold to more than 200 units in the last decade.
Some burial grounds in Canada, nestled among foliage and undergrowth, return to nature in just a few years, rendering those who lie there to "rest in peace" in the truest sense of words.
Cremation also propagates the green idea: human ashes have found its way to the bluest of seas and deepest of ground to be one with nature.
Such a concept is the complete opposite of traditional burials, says green funeral products provider Darren Crouch.
"It's alien to the conventional funeral because traditional funeral focuses on preservation -- bodies are embalmed; steel, copper and tropical hardwood caskets remain popular; and reinforced concrete is used for vaults.
"But in a green funeral, the goal is for the remains to go back to the earth. And if they can go back to the earth without disturbing the ecosystem, that's a bonus."
Keeping to this, green graves tend to be shallower to allow for quicker decomposition.
Indigenous plants or trees replace grave markers in the spirit of conservation and land preservation.
In cases where there are no markers, global position system is used to locate the grave.
Burials are also done relatively quick and the funeral service less formal.
Despite the meteoric rise in environmental awareness in recent years and increase in green consumers as some sporadic studies have shown, the funeral industry isn't fully capitalising on this new market, says Crouch.
"What we're finding in the US is that green consumers tend to be better educated and more affluent. The irony is many funeral directors believe that these consumers won't spend money. What we've found though is that they will, but only on products and services that meet their needs."
In a survey two years ago by Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation, six in 10 of its consumers said they would buy more eco-friendly products if there were no price difference.
The beauty of such products in the funeral industry, says Crouch, is that they tend to be less expensive than traditional items.
For example, biodegradable urns made from sand, rock salt, or paper from tree bark, cost a fraction of the price of a casket.
At the Asia Funeral Expo, the EcoUrn, which won the expo's most environmental friendly product award, costs HK$500 (about RM250).
These hand-painted urns made from corn, which degrade and turn into water within three years of burial, are expected to gain popularity in line with the rise in cremation rate in many countries, says Joergen Mayland, director of EcoUrn International.
The company, which has a 60 per cent market share in Denmark, has received favourable response for its urns in land-scarce China, Taiwan and Macau.
Although the green funeral revolution has yet to catch on in Malaysia, Xiao En Group's Nancy Choo says the local funeral industry has to be ready for it when it does.
For this reason, the funeral service provider is revamping its casket showroom to include a green corner displaying eco urns and eco caskets.
"About 40 per cent of the land in Nilai Memorial Park is taken up by green infrastructure and we're constantly looking for ways to expand the green concept.
"We plan to hold more talks so that the public can be better informed before we embark on pushing forth these products and service," says the sales and marketing director of Xiao En Group. "Green funeral services are definitely in the pipeline."
In some ways, green funerals are a demonstration that one does not have to forgo environmental principles even at death.
|
|
|
