So how green are you, exactly? Does your environmental conscience extend to the grave? Bluntly speaking, funerals are a pricy business, and an eco-unfriendly one at that. Traditional coffins tend to contain chipboard for starters, held together by heavy, acid-based glue, a serious eco-no-no. Then there are the oil-based varnishes, seriously harmful for the environment – we could go on, but chances are you get the idea.
Enter forward-thinking Donegal-based outfit Green Coffins Ireland (GCI), which offers a broad variety of affordable, biodegradable burial options, all manufactured from natural or recycled materials, among them willow, bamboo, banana leaf and water hyacinth. We’re rather taken with their cardboard coffins, too. Pragmatists might call it the flat-pack approach to burial. And then there are the rather stylish Eco Pods, available in blue, red and a fetching green Celtic cross design.
GCI is also in the process of creating Ireland’s first natural burial ground, set to open next month on 7.5 acres near Killane,
Co Wexford. Instead of marble headstones and concrete surrounds, your passing will be noted by a modest marker and the planting of a native Irish tree. www.greencoffinsireland.com.
