By Parker McKenzie
A public forum on green burials will be held at the Selby Community House on Wednesday 8 March from 7pm, with two sisters passionate about sustainable deaths speaking to the local community about the alternative end-of-life practice.
Green burial, sometimes known as eco-burial, is an alternative to traditional caskets or cremation, with a focus on environmental sustainability.
Tamsin Ramone, along with her sister Alyssa Wormald, will talk about green burial as an alternative to traditional practices.
Ms Ramone said the pair have a business selling green burial products and recently gave a talk at Belgrave Library about the practice, where they connected with the forum organiser.
“We’re trying to offer products that are Australian-made and have a really small environmental impact, everything we make is entirely biodegradable,” she said.
“We do a lot of free community education at libraries, community homes and markets to encourage people to look at what their rights are, what they can and can’t do and how their choices affect the environment.
We were doing a speech at the library that Karl was at, and he asked if we’d like to come to the forum and do a similar thing.”
During a green burial, the body is buried in a way to allow it to be naturally decomposed and recycled within the environment, often using biodegradable coffins, caskets or a shroud.
Karl Williams, the organiser of the forum, said many people are unaware of the environmental impact of traditional burials and most want to leave a light footprint.
“If you’re unaware of conventional funeral practices then your bag of bones is going to cause a minor environmental disaster,” he said.
“I’m definitely going to have earth burial, but not as soon as many would like.”
The forum will cover the environmental impacts of conventional burials and cremations, what rights the next of kin has regarding burial and know local funeral directors and burial grounds.
Ms Ramone said the pair’s community education often has a lengthy question-and-answer session at the end because of the many questions the public have about green burial.
“Right now, funeral homes and people in the death industry are all very comfortable with what they’re doing, knowing that’s the way they are going to provide a good service,” she said.
“People are able to request a green burial and they’re perfectly entitled to have one and if the funeral home isn’t happy to provide it, they are legally within their rights to go elsewhere. We really want to empower people to have more autonomy with their end-of-life choices.”
The public forum is free, with a gold coin donation requested to cover a light meal provided on the day. There is no need to book ahead of time.
