Do you want a Natural Burial?
Chances are, like most of us in BC, there isn't a Natural or Green Burial Cemetery in your community. Yet.
The next best thing might be a Green Burial section in your local municipal cemetery.
Does your municipal cemetery offer green burial? Don't know? CALL AND ASK.
Call your municipal office, your city hall, your town council, your regional district office, and ask to speak to the individual in charge of cemeteries. Let them know that your call is a funeral planning question, not an immediate need.
It's not necessary to ask if the cemetery offers Green Burial ~ we can be more specific and ask, "Can I bury my loved one without the required grave liner?" Is there is a Green Burial option in your local cemetery?
If the answer is no, ask if natural burial is being discussed, and if they have an idea of when you might expect to have a green burial option available locally.
You might explain your reasons for wanting a green burial, citing environmental concerns. You can say you'd like to be buried locally but don't want a conventional burial that requires a fiberglass or concrete grave liner.
You can talk about the fact that municipal cemeteries offering green burial are not charging less for their green burial plots so it wouldn't be a matter of losing money. (This is important to municipalities.)
You could mention that Prince George and Penticton are offering Green Burial plots and point them to the Where In BC page of this website.
We just need to ASK and keep asking.
Hybrid green burial sites in Municipal cemeteries are a great way to get the ball rolling.
Ideally, we’d like to see Stand Alone Natural Burial Cemeteries preserving sensitive ecosystems, but at its most basic, NATURAL or GREEN BURIAL means No Embalming, No Grave Liner or Vault and Direct Earth Burial in a biodegradable container or shroud. This can be implemented at most municipal cemeteries by changing a few bylaws.
We really need to keep asking.
If you do call, please send an email, or direct message me on IG or FB and let us know what you've learned.
Follow Natural Burial in BC on Facebook and on Instagram @greenburial_bc
THANK YOU.
Green Burial BC has been a labour of love for just over eight years, and we all know that love doesn't pay the bills.
We are reaching out to raise some coin to keep things going. There are website costs, subscriptions to Zoom, free outreach and education ... if you have a few dollars to contribute, we'd be ever grateful.
Thanks so much. Nicola Finch.
Fundraising platform is hosted on Charity Village.
https://fnd.us/GreenBurialBC