“I organized my green funeral”

Saint-Brieuc, in Brittany, I push for the first time the door of a consultant in eco-friendly funerals. Sandra Rolland welcomes me in a floral dress. She will guide me in preparing for my funeral, as she does with far-sighted people or at the end of my life. Ok, I am 35 years old, I am in good health and I have no plans to pass away anytime soon. But I don’t want my body to make global warming worse.

The interview begins. I am a little nervous. I evoke my taste for cherry trees, my visceral feminism and my love of Spain. At the end of this hour of revelation, I must sketch out a choice for the destiny of my post mortem body. Fearing that green funerals rhyme with cremation, I tell Sandra Rolland of my aversion to fire. “What are the most environmentally friendly funerals?” It is burial in the ground, that is to say without a vault or a tombstone ”, answers the young woman of 37 years. Phew! I leave, really relieved.

This article originally appeared in WE DEMAIN n°35. A number always available on newsstands and on our online store.

Donation of the body to science?

Second interview, two weeks later. I am warned, this time, we will get into the hard: body care, coffin, cemetery and other funeral celebrations … First of all, you have to decide what to do with my corpse before the burial. There is a quick solution: the gift of the body. The Faculty of Medicine covers the transport and all the costs of the funeral directors. Despite the altruistic dimension of this option, no, personally, I prefer to imagine myself at the bottom of a box rather than in an amphitheater of intrigued rifles.

And while waiting for the ceremony, organized within six days of the death (not counting Sundays and holidays), I prefer to rest at home. It must be tiring to die. It is above all more practical, greener and more economical than being transported and stored in the death chamber of a hospital or funeral home.

Cold instead of formalin

“What do you want for your body? “ I prefer to stay intact. “For this, we must take care ». What do you mean, we’re not going to take care of my body if I don’t ask for it? No. In funeral jargon, care is this treatment carried out by embalming workers consisting in injecting formalin to delay the decomposition process. They are not compulsory, except in the event of repatriation abroad. A report from ANSES (National Agency for National Food Safety) states that formalin (alias formaldehyde) is classified as carcinogenic by the European Union (1). You will tell me, I will be dead. However, it is a harmful product, both for professionals and for floors.

ANSES also recommends that funeral operators “To avoid resorting, when families do not request it, to conservation care for the benefit of toilets and refrigeration techniques (refrigerated cell)”. To embalassers “To use alternatives to formaldehyde”. And to the public authorities “To regulate the management of waste following conservation care, so as to limit the risks associated with transport, storage, treatment and disposal operations. »

Read also : Bee, hedgehog, fox: cemeteries, new biodiversity sanctuaries

Biosac for eco-friendly funerals

No care, therefore. I opt for a simple mortuary toilet. Naturally what. “Okay,” Sandra Rolland continues. The toilet consists of obstructing the openings to absorb the flow, putting on hygienic protections and suturing the mouth to keep it tightly closed. ”

Perfect, that sounds great to me! I prefer clothes made of natural fiber, and no jewelry, which pollutes too much. Just my personal touch, glitter. ” The detail that kills “, jokes my funeral consultant. For the ultimate presentation to my loved ones, she tells me, I can opt for the biosac: a sachet made up of activated charcoal and natural clay, placed on the stomach to avoid spills and bad odors from the abdomen, the most scavenging part of the body. Then, in the coffin, no mystery: rot will be my lot.

Humusation, aquamation, promession…

Is there no other method to stem this putrefaction? There is indeed humusation, but it is not allowed anywhere in France, informs me Sandra Rolland. This composting process involves wrapping the body in shredded material. In three months, the microorganisms feed on its flesh, and in about a year, the bones break down, feeding the soil with phosphorus.

Manon Moncoq, funeral and environmental anthropologist, who is writing a thesis on ecological funerals, has identified many other techniques.

« Other eco-friendly burial methods, legal in some American and Canadian states, include the Recompose process. A hermetic lock, mushrooms and external pressure are used to reduce the body to compost; but also aquamation, a cremation by water: an alkaline solution makes the flesh disappear. The promise, invented in Sweden, involves immersing the body in liquid nitrogen to freeze it to the extreme, before breaking it into small pieces on a vibrating table. “

Cardboard or wooden coffin?

Now that the fate of my carcass is sealed, we must tackle the side effects: coffin, tombstone, and all the noise. In France, the coffin is compulsory. Impossible to wither in a shroud, which would have seemed to me the most environmentally friendly. But I had anticipated this by having a sober but elegant cardboard coffin mailed to me.

My guide breaks my infatuation: ” For a burial, it is impossible, cardboard is only allowed in the crematorium. “ So I would have had to want to be cremated to enjoy a last kraft cardboard home. But would it have been really green? The subject is debated in the profession. The object, made from recycled paper and vegetable glue, is made in France, and you can transport a thousand of them in a semi-trailer. However, it requires slightly more energy to burn the body: cardboard does not provide the heat input generated by wood, allowing combustion to be accelerated. According to studies, the difference is minimal, but in favor of wood.

French pine coffin and seasonal flowers

I browse the pages of the catalog of eco-responsible wooded coffins … “Do you want a casket with moldings?” “, asks Sandra Rolland. No, a first prize will do. I choose a pine box, passed through an eco-managed forest and a French sawmill, covered with hydrocire (water and natural wax).

How much do these six assembled pieces of wood cost? “Around 1,000 euros,” answers my advisor. It all depends on what’s being done in your city. “ I am incredibly lucky: it is in Nantes, near my home, that the first French funeral cooperative was created in 2017. The agency guides non-profit families. For the ceremony, local and seasonal flowers, I said, hoping to die in the spring.

Read also: Video funerals, virtual guestbook … the Covid leads to mourning 2.0

Gravestone made in France

“You have the coffin of your dreams, let’s move on to the grave,” smiles Sandra Rolland. You should know that the stone explodes the meters in terms of ecology: cost of manufacture, transport, installation, etc. ”

Perfect, I had no intention of inflicting a block of granite over my head like 95% of French corpses. About thirty years ago, unexploited quarries were discovered in China and India with veined granites, orange, green, red. These shimmering and inexpensive new nuggets have led a third of French granite makers (especially Bretons and Tarn) to file for bankruptcy.

Today, 50% of granite arrives from Asia in container ships in the tens of millions of tonnes each year. The French are not very careful about this aspect. In 2019, only 23% of them placed French manufacture of the tombstone as the first purchase criterion.

Quest for a Verdant Graveyard

Last step of the accompaniment: the cemetery. I am confident, I have spotted green ecological cemeteries near Niort (Deux-Sèvres), Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), or even in the forest of Arbas (Haute-Garonne). Sandra Rolland shower my hopes. This forest is reserved for cinerary urns (so in the event of cremation) and anyway, I can only be buried on my place of residence, my place of death or in a concession already paid or sheltering one of my deceased parents. . For a moment, I imagine myself moving to Niort to enjoy a bucolic eternity.

Before going to the obvious: I will be buried in Nantes, where there will be room.“If only there was a small river at the end of the cemetery for the lapping to rock me”, I thought.“Impossible,” retorts my guide. The decomposing body, especially after having received chemotherapy or ingested pesticides while alive, produces gas and pollutes the water table. “

If it is also complicated to be green in death, I will try to be green in life.

(1) Potential alternatives to formaldehyde in embalming.
(2) ANSES opinion, Collective expert appraisal report, March 2020.