Daily BrewGTA launches Canada’s newest natural burial site
Eco-conscious Canadians looking for the ultimate way to give back to the planet now have a new option.
As the Toronto Star reports, another natural burial site is set to open Monday in the Greater Toronto Area, making it the third known cemetery in the country where an environmental ethos officially trumps the traditional casket route.
Brampton's Meadowvale cemetery will consist of a plot of land in a field, some indigenous grass and flowers and little else — well, besides the actual bodies.
That means no chemical embalming, no varnished coffins and no tombstones allowed.
Instead, this final resting place will involve untreated caskets made of biodegradable materials, small numbered markers to orient visitors and four granite obelisks where families can opt to inscribe the names of their loved ones.
Ryan Cowan, a spokesperson for Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries (the parent company that operates a number of cemeteries and mausoleums in the GTA) told the Star their latest endeavour seeks to return to the basics.
"The underlying principal is to allow the human remains to return to the earth as naturally as possible," he said.
Meadowvale will join Cobourg Union Cemetery in Ontario and the Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver in the list of natural burial sites available to Canadians.
The Natural Burial in Canada website notes that the Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria, B.C. is currently working on developing its own natural burial area.
In its traditional definition, a natural burial site is cited as an area where bodies are placed in the soil in a manner that doesn't inhibit decomposition, allowing the body to be recycled back into the earth.
Each site adopts a different methodology. For instance, some won't allow for any embalming, while others, like Meadowvale, make exceptions provided no formaldehyde or non-biodegradable chemicals are used.
Despite the opposition from certain environmental groups, cremation also gets the green light provided families place the ashes in a biodegradable container.
The method took root in the UK over two decades ago and has spread across Europe, making its way into Canada and the U.S. more recently.
But while there's far less hardware involved in the process, the article notes that a natural burial will cost you around the same as a more traditional service.
Cowan chalks it up to the work that has to be done to prepare the plot, although there's nothing more specific to suggest how that becomes cost comparable.
If demand grows, however, the Mount Pleasant group said they would consider hybridizing more of their existing cemeteries to include natural burial areas.
Good for the environment, definitely. But also good for the film industry: Throw an ambitious condo developer into the mix and a dozen new Canadian horror flicks just received their inspiration.
