Environmentally Friendly Coffins

When it comes the time to bid a loved one a fond farewell, there are decisions that you and the family can make to help keep the procession cheap and safe for the environment. Environmentally friendly coffins are made of a variety of materials and depending on personal style and taste, they’re able to be personalized and catered to your wishes. Wicker, recycled paper or wool: environmentally friendly coffins are generally less expensive and will decompose efficiently with time.

Putting Your Loved One to Rest Responsibly

While we’d all like to think that any particular burial is a responsible one, there are coffins that can cause lasting damage to the ecology of the cemetery land as well as neighboring properties. Many solid wooden coffins are coated in polish, polyurethane and staining. These chemicals will seep in time and destroy the soil of the burial plot. In an environmentally friendly coffin, however, your loved one will “become as dust” at the same rate as the coffin itself. Both vessels return to Earth. While polished solid wood and metal coffins are attractive they can cause damage to the environment over a long period of time when buried six feet under. To ensure that your great, great grandchildren will be able to visit the cemetery plot without fear of exposure, using naturally green materials like wool and willow branches is ideal for burial caskets.

Ecologically Sound Coffins

A good green coffin will degrade in time but it will also return nutrients to the Earth. Braided willow branches make beautiful coffins and they are biodegradable over time. Because willow branches are organic, they will break down effectively and supply the soil with nutrients. While solid wood caskets would normally be environmentally sound if untreated, most are pressure and water treated, then polyurethaned, then polished to bring out the look of the wood. Ecologically sound coffins are beautiful on par with any polished wood and they will never release harmful chemicals into the soil after burial. Nature lovers in particular love the idea of a biodegradable coffin as their last resting place. If you have a well groomed mountain man that you’re accounting for in times of burial – wicker coffins are inexpensive and effective for cremation and for ground burial.

Doing the Right Thing for Earth, and the Departed

By getting an environmentally friendly coffin for your dearly departed loved one you will effectively be saving the planet and usually honoring a special part of the person’s life who is on their way to Heaven. Many people show signs that the environment is important to them, even if they’re not an outward volunteer or vocal proponent of the ecology. Doing their part to preserve water, recycling and not littering could all be taken as signs that the departed may have liked, if not directly requested an eco-friendly funeral. Whether it’s wool, wicker, willow or recycled paper particle board, there are coffins on the market that will only benefit the environment over the course of time.