‘I don’t want to end up in a box when I die, I want an eco funeral’

With awareness of our carbon footprints growing all the time, some people striving to lead eco-friendly lives are turning their attention to what happens when they die.

“I don’t want my last act on this planet to be a polluting act, if I can help that,” Rachel Hawthorn explains.

She is getting ready to make her own burial shroud because she is concerned about the environmental impact of traditional burials and cremations.

“I try so hard in my life to recycle and to use less, and to live in an environmentally friendly way, so I want my death to be that as well,” she adds.

A gas cremation produces the estimated equivalent carbon dioxide emissions of a return flight from London to Paris and around 80% of those who die in the UK are cremated each

year, according to a report from carbon consultancy firm, Planet Mark.

But traditional burials can pollute too. Non-biodegradable coffins are often made with harmful chemicals and bodies are embalmed using formaldehyde: a toxic substance which can leach into soil.

In a recent survey from Co-op Funeralcare, conducted by YouGov, one person in 10 said they would want a more ‘eco-friendly’ funeral.

Rachel, from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, made a burial shroud for a friend from locally-sourced wool, willow, bramble and ivy, as part of her work as an artist.

For years she has explored the themes of death, dying, grief and nature through crafts and functional objects.

But the 50-year-old sees the shroud, which can also remove the need for a coffin, as more than just artwork – and has since decided to make her own.

A common reaction from those who have seen the creation is to ask if they can touch it, to feel how soft it is.

For Rachel, it is the perfect way of helping people address the taboo topic of death.

She also works as a death doula, which involves supporting people who are dying, as well as their loved ones, to make informed funeral care choices.

“I find that when we talk about death, everybody I’ve met finds it a helpful and healthy thing, and something that is life-enriching,” she says.

“When somebody dies it is often so shocking. We just get on a treadmill of ‘this is what happens’, so I want to open up those conversations.

“I want more people to know there are options and that we don’t have to end up in a box.”

The practice of digging graves to a depth of 6ft (1.82m) dates back at least to the 16th Century and is believed to have been a precaution against plague.

When Rachel’s time comes, she wants a natural burial, which means using a biodegradable coffin or shroud in a shallower grave. The upper layers of soil contain more active microbes, so bodies can decompose in about 20 to 30 years, rather than up to 100 in a traditional grave.

Source: BBC