How green burial actually works.

A conventional casket is a manufactured product. It may be made of hardwood, of steel or other metal, or of engineered wood with veneers; and it often includes varnishes and sealants, rubber or foam gaskets, and metal handles, hinges and screws. Some are marketed as “protective” or “sealed”.

A green burial container is chosen to return to the earth alongside the body:

• Simple unfinished wood — a plain casket of solid, untreated softwood such as pine, with minimal wooden or biodegradable fastenings.
• Wicker or woven — willow, seagrass or bamboo, on a rigid biodegradable base.
• A shroud — wool, cotton, linen or silk, usually on a rigid shroud board so the body can be carried and lowered.
• Biodegradable alternatives — for example unbleached, recycled cardboard.

Finishes, glues, hardware and synthetic components matter because they slow or prevent breakdown, add manufactured material to the ground, and can leave lasting fragments of plastic, metal or resin. Green burial standards therefore favour natural materials and simple, biodegradable joinery.

At Elk Falls specifically

The City’s bylaw requires the shroud, casket or container to be primarily biodegradable and sustainable, to have a rigid base, and to be approved by the City before the service. It prohibits plywood, particleboard, fibreboard, metal (beyond minimal structural fasteners), exotic or non-sustainable wood, bleached cardboard, high-gloss or synthetic finishes, and synthetic glues or linings.

A buried body is broken down by the living community of the soil — bacteria, fungi and small soil invertebrates. How quickly and steadily this happens depends on the conditions around the grave:

• Oxygen. Soil near the surface holds more air. There, decomposition is mostly aerobic and comparatively steady. Deeper, waterlogged or sealed conditions hold less oxygen; airless (anaerobic) processes take over and work more slowly.
• Moisture. Some moisture helps the process along; heavy, waterlogged soils slow it down.
• Temperature. Warm soil speeds biological activity; cold soil slows it. On Vancouver Island the ground is cool for much of the year.
• Soil life. A topsoil rich in organisms does the work. The more biologically active the soil, the sooner the body returns to it.
• Time. This is a process of years, not days or weeks. Soft tissues return to the soil first; the skeleton lasts far longer.

Over time the grave settles, and the nutrients released support the plants growing above it. That is why green burial areas are planted and managed as living landscape, rather than paved or capped.

A conventional cemetery grave is usually part of a mown lawn: an individual plot, often irrigated and kept as turf, with an individual marker.

Green burial areas take a restoration approach. After a grave settles, it is planted with locally native grasses, wildflowers, shrubs or trees, and the area is managed as a natural landscape or habitat rather than lawn. In the Green Burial Society of Canada’s words, the site as a whole “becomes a living memorial” to the people buried there.

At Elk Falls specifically

The City manages planting in the green burial area, following a set planting plan and using only species native to the local climate. Planting is seasonal — a burial in late winter may not be planted until the following autumn or winter. Depending on the lot, the family may be offered a choice of planting or a part in the planting. The City makes every reasonable effort toward a planting’s longevity but gives no guarantee.

Green burial is often chosen partly for environmental reasons. The differences are best understood plainly — they are mostly about materials, chemicals, land and energy. Reliable numbers comparing whole practices are scarce, so this page keeps to qualitative points and does not repeat the dramatic statistics that circulate online.

Manufactured materials

A conventional burial can involve a metal or hardwood casket and a concrete grave liner or vault. A green burial uses a biodegradable container and no liner or vault. That is less mined, milled and manufactured material placed in the ground.

Chemicals

Because a green burial omits embalming, embalming fluids — disinfectant and preservative chemicals — are not introduced into the burial ground.

The land

Green burial areas are usually managed as a natural landscape and replanted with locally native species, which can support habitat and above-ground biodiversity, rather than being maintained as irrigated, marked, mown lawn. A well-planned green cemetery is also designed to use its land efficiently.

Decomposition and soil

Placing an unembalmed body in shallower, biologically active soil favours aerobic decomposition and a relatively quick return of nutrients to the soil.

Compared with cremation

Cremation uses fuel and energy, and does not return the body to the soil. A green burial involves no combustion. Which option has the lower overall impact depends on many local factors and is not settled by a simple comparison.

What the evidence does and doesn’t show

The direction of these differences is widely accepted and follows from basic ecology: green burial is a lower-material, lower-chemical practice. But researchers note that careful, side-by-side studies of natural versus conventional burial are still limited, and some questions — for example about groundwater in particular soil and site conditions — need more work. Broader or quantified claims deserve care.