Former Orange County farmland will be the largest ‘green burial’ site in North Carolina
Death in the Triangle is getting an eco-friendly opportunity: The state’s largest conservation “green” burial ground is coming to Orange County this spring. “Green burial” is the term used to classify environmentally friendly interment of a body - no embalming fluids, no caskets made of treated wood or metals, no cement vaults. Bodies are buried in shrouds or in other untreated, biodegradable materials like pine boxes, and put into the soil where everything decomposes naturally - ultimately returning to the Earth. “The average funeral costs $8,000 in the United States. Embalming is about $700, a vault runs $1,500 to $4,000, and there are metal and hardwood caskets that can cost up to $20,000,” Weston said. Green burials cost less than what we think of as traditional