October 23, 2009

     Seems like "green" is in these days.  From green jobs to green living – and now green dying.

     Green funerals and burials are a growing trend here in the Twin Tiers.

     “I love to come up here, I feel enhanced,” said Joel Rabinowitz, executive director of Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve in Newfield.

     Greensprings is an inconspicuous space is the final resting place for dozens of people.

     “We’ve had burials from all around the country, we've even had bodies shipped in from California,” said Rabinowtiz.

     Greensprings is a "green" cemetery -- the first of its kind in the northeast.

     “[It’s] simple, back-to-the-earth burial -- either in a shroud or a pine casket, the family participating any way they want to,” said burial coordinator Jennifer Johnson.

     Bodies aren't embalmed at Greensprings, and they don't allow hardwood caskets -- just simple pinewood, wicker baskets, or shrouds.  Headstones are optional.  If the family chooses to have one, it has to be a quarry stone or a field stone, and it can’t be polished.

     Greensprings has been open just three-and-a-half years.  Although only 50 people are buried here now, 250 have already bought plots.

    “Green funerals and green burials are catching on nationwide, and we wanted be a part of that if that's what people desire,” said Dick Blauvelt, owner of the Blauvelt Funeral Home in Waverly.

     Blauvelt recently started offering green funerals, but he says, so far, none of his clients have gone 100% green yet.

     “The consumers going to drive this.  If they want it, we're going to offer it to them,” said Blauvelt.

     Rabinowitz and Johnson both say they’d like to be buried at Greensprings someday.

      “Hopefully in the faraway future,” said Johnson.

USEFUL LINKS

Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve