Mary Bert enjoyed hiking and spending time in the outdoors. Vacations with her husband Bill often included hitting a trail and wildlife watching, from toucans and howler monkeys in Guatemala to finback whales off Nova Scotia.
“One of the last ones was the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas where we saw coyotes and lots of peccaries” (a type of wild pig), Bill Bert said.
His wife enjoyed those forays into nature so much it spurred the couple’s interest in designating their final resting place in a natural setting and their burials handled in an eco-friendly way.
“We thought do you want to be in a box in a concrete vault for eternity or do you want to naturally decompose back in the environment,” said Berk, of Lancaster. “That was an easy choice.”
After exploring cemeteries that allowed for green burials and their locations, they ended up buying two plots at The Wood’s Edge at Paxtang Cemetery outside of Harrisburg.
His wife died on her 68th birthday on Christmas Eve 2022, after battling cancer for nearly two years. Bert said before her passing, she said she was “very pleased that we made the decision to have a green burial.”
In a traditional green burial, the deceased are placed in biodegradable coffins or a shroud as in Mary Berk’s case, and placed in the ground. There are 16 hybrid cemeteries in Pennsylvania with traditional grave sites and a plot of land dedicated to green burials, like Paxtang Cemetery.
Pennsylvania has emerged as one of the five best states for green burials in Lawn Love’s 2023 report. Pennsylvania has the most Green Burial Council-Certified Funeral Homes in the country, and the third-highest local interest in green burials.
Now state lawmakers are offering legislation to expand Pennsylvania’s eco-friendly burial options.
“Regional interest is imperative to inspire local movements and groups like the Friends of Green Burial PA advocate for more green burial options in the state,” LawnLove writer Sav Maive said. Friends of Green Burial PA is a nonprofit working to educate Pennsylvanians about green burials, particularly conservation burials.
Paxtang Cemetery was the first green burial ground in central Pennsylvania, opening in 2014. Cemetery owner Alesia Skinner said people who request a green burial are often outdoors enthusiasts who are concerned about the environment and their impact on it — even in death.
“Our whole world is growingly more aware of what that impact means on the individual level and this offers an opportunity to reduce your carbon footprint when you die,” Skinner said.
It also is a less expensive alternative. It generally runs around 60% of the cost of a traditional burial with savings coming from forgoing embalming, a casket, a vault and having the service at the graveside, she said.
Legislation has been introduced in Harrisburg that would allow for alkaline hydrolysis, or water-based cremation. Another bill would legalize human composting, in which the body is allowed to naturally decompose in a container filled with straw and other organic materials.
Both alternative burial methods have a lower carbon footprint than traditional burial methods, including flame cremation.
Cemeteries use enough steel and concrete to construct the Golden Gate Bridge every year, and one cremation can produce greenhouse gas emissions high enough to equate to a 500-mile road trip, Maive said.
While cremations are sometimes thought of as the more eco-friendly option, “nothing could be further from the truth,” said Carin Bonifacino, president and co-founder of Friends of Green Burial PA.
Water-based cremation does not emit carbon dioxide in the air, and results in bone fragments, which are then pulverized into “ashes” and given to the family, and water that is sent to a wastewater treatment plant. It results in a larger amount of ashes than traditional cremation, making it ideal for large families.
“There are just so many good things about it,” said Sen. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson County, who authored a bill legalizing the water-based cremation. “It gives the family members peace of mind and it’s more friendly to the environment and uses less energy, so it’s a lower cost.”
Dush said his original interest in the process came after a conversation with a friend who operates a funeral home, and that he was grateful when Rep. Mary Jo Daley, D-Montgomery County, decided to offer a similar bill in the House.
Daley and Rep. Christopher Rabb, D-Philadelphia, introduced the legislation to legalize human composting.
Human composting results in a small amount of soil after the body is broken down by organic material. The soil is then recycled into the earth.
If approved, these measures could raise Pennsylvania’s eco-friendly burial status, Maive said. In addition to the bills, incentivizing access to green burial options and providers could make Pennsylvania greener.
Pennsylvania has one natural burial ground, Penn Forest Natural Burial Park in Allegheny County, which is specifically for green burials. But it has no conservation burial grounds, which are areas of land specifically dedicated to green burials. They often feature walkways and long stretches of natural scenery. The deceased are placed in shrouds or biodegradable caskets, and in the place of tombstones, natural, engraved stones typically mark a grave.
The process of a conservation burial legally preserves the land on which a body is buried, Maive said.
“It’s a very daunting enterprise to start a cemetery, even conservation grounds, from scratch,” Bonifacino said. “You have to go through zoning, own the land and pay the startup costs which are significant — up to $200,000.”
Bonifacino said that a grant program or funding to help green burial startups would be a welcome addition in the commonwealth. She also said allowing already protected lands to be used for conservation burial grounds could provide a boost in green burials.
“What we are doing with our bodies after death is hurting the planet,” Bonifacino said. “The added bonus of natural and green burials is that you’re supporting life with your decomposing body. “
At Paxtang Cemetery, the green burial section is located on the edge of the property and back in the woods where nature abounds – and only real plants, not silk ones, are permitted.
“it just makes it seem like you are way out in the woods,” Bert said of his wife’s final resting place. “You hear the bees buzzing around and the butterflies. The birds are chirping and so on. It’s just really peaceful.”
