A local couple is asking Deep River council to expand the options to allow for “green burial” at the Deep River cemetery.
In a letter to council on the agenda for this week’s meeting, Colleen Payer says she and her husband and “many local residents” are interested in “green burial” and “hopefully Deep River council will be open minded and look at this as another environmental positive for the future of our town.”
“I think with this, time is of the essence, we no longer want to fill our cemeteries with embalming fluid or waste energy, driving a body to a crematorium and Ottawa and back again plus the energy to reduce that body to ashes.”
Payer says the Valley Funeral Home is prepared to accept residents who are interested in green burial, but “up until now, most residents have had to buy plots outside of our area.”
“This is not their wish, however they have no other option.”
According to Green Burial Ottawa Valley, an incorporated not-for-profit co-op that advocates for wider access to green burial in the region, green burial “means allowing a human body to decompose and return to the earth naturally.”
“The body is not embalmed; cold and cleanliness can keep the body in good condition for several days,” the group’s website says.
“The body is buried directly in the earth, in a shroud or bio-degradable casket made of local materials (pine, for example). It is not enclosed in a metal coffin or concrete vault…
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