A new way to get buried, in an environmentally-safe way. From this morning's WaPo:
At Greensprings, where a plot costs $500 plus a $350 fee to dig the grave, bodies cannot be embalmed or otherwise chemically preserved. They must be buried in biodegradable caskets without linings or metal ornamentation. The cemetery suggests locally harvested woods, wicker or cloth shrouds. Concrete or steel burial vaults are not allowed. Nor are standing monuments, upright tombstones or statues.
Only flat, natural fieldstones are permitted as grave markers (they can be engraved). Shrubs or trees are preferred.
And only one person is allowed in each 15-foot-by-15-foot plot.
"This is more than just dig a hole in the woods and roll them in. We see it as a natural return to the Earth, becoming part of the circle of life," said Mary Woodsen, a lifelong conservationist and the cemetery's president.
I have no problem with this, but I find it ironic--perhaps amusing, noteworthy, or significant; I'm not sure--that the green morgue endeavors to get rid of the body forever and to minimize remembrance of the dead person. It seems to parallel the hatred for mankind (and the efforts to restrict live births) that has marred environmentalism from the beginning.
