Thinking outside the box - updates - new trend of being buried au naturel in fields, forests or seas

A growing number of environmentally conscious people abhor the idea of having their mortal remains embalmed, sealed in a metal or plastic casket and buried in a cement vault. In response, some firms are, literally, breaking new ground.

There's a new trend that's all about what we leave behind. Conventional cemeteries turn a huge number of beautiful places into rows upon rows of gravestones--landfills of embalming chemicals and cement. Then back-hoes, lawnmowers and tree pruning equipment put diesel emissions into the air and pesticides and fertilizers into the water. Environmentalists say it's a grave situation.

Increasingly, people are choosing "green graves"--being buried au naturel amid the fields, forests and even the waters of the seas.

At Memorial Ecosystems, located on the 32-acre Ramsey Creek Preserve in Westminster, South Carolina, there are no manicured lawns, marble monoliths or metal vaults. Bodies can't be embalmed, caskets must be biodegradable and graves are marked only with natural, flat stones. It is managed as a "nature preserve first, cemetery second." Memorial Ecosystems hopes to establish a nationwide chain of memorial wilderness areas.

And Glendale Memorial Nature Preserve in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, has set aside 70 acres of fields, creeks, ponds and woods in the state's panhandle region for a memorial park. It's currently awaiting approval from the Florida Board of Cemeteries.

The trend is picking up support in a dozen states, including California, Ohio, Wisconsin, New York and Washington. But the Earth-friendly burial movement is much more entrenched in England. More than 120 such preserves have been built there, and 50 more are planned, according to the London-based Natural Death Centre.

For those who'd rather sleep with the fishes, Eternal Reefs in Decatur, Georgia, mixes a person's ashes with concrete and turns them into an artificial reef to serve as marine habitat for sea life. To date, the company has built more than 200 such "memorial reefs"--expected to last 500 years--off the coasts of Florida, South Carolina and Texas. In addition to having positive eco-impact, green burials are also less expensive than traditional burials. The average cost of a US funeral is $5,180, according to the National Funeral Directors Association, while burial at Memorial Ecosystems costs less than half that--about $2,300. And the reefs cost between $900 and $3,000, depending upon the size, plus the $1,000 price of cremation.

While traditional cemeteries are still the norm in the United States, those seeking alternatives have a few bones to pick with them. And they'd prefer to leave acres of woods as a living legacy.