This video series focuses on green (or natural) burial emphasizes simplicity and environmental sustainability. The body is neither cremated nor prepared with chemicals such as embalming fluids. It is simply placed in a biodegradable coffin or shroud and interred without a concrete burial vault. The grave site is allowed to return to nature. The goal is complete decomposition of the body and its natural return to the soil. Only then can a burial truly be “ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” a phrase so often used when we bury our dead.
Mary Lauren Fraser has a unique business; she hand-weaves caskets out of Ohio willow branches that grow on her West Dummerston property. This uncommon practice has attracted attention from the green burial community, who look to change the conversation around death and burials to include sustainable practices and materials.
