Hybrid cars, backyard composters and household rain barrels have much in common with green burial these days. Opting for a biodegradable casket or shroud and forgoing chemical embalming and the use of a burial vault are just a few more eco-choices Americans now have in the midst of overwhelming environmental problems. Over the last decade or more news stories have done their best to trumpet these choices. As a 2010 New York Times article put it, “At the end of an eco-conscious life there is a final decision a person can make to limit his or her impact on the planet: a green funeral.”
These choices aren’t exactly new.