[debmay608]

Recently I was looking at a web site that I frequent and they were advertising card board caskets. I was wondering if it was legal to be buried in a card board casket? %^)

[JudyKayTee]

I don't know where you are. It IS legal in NYS - it's not a cardboard box, it's a heavier cardboard but yes, it is done.

[tickle]

Although I can't find regulations pertaining to land burial, I don't think using a cardboard casket would be allowed under any circumstances. Normally bodies are buried in their caskets, inside cement lined with a material that will not allow affluent to enter the ground.

If someone is suggesting cardboard caskets, then that would destroy our ground water supply and contaminate a lot of earth.

Tick

[JudyKayTee]

I don't know where you are. It IS legal in NYS - it's not a cardboard box, it's a heavier cardboard but yes, it is done.

I worked on a lawsuit involving this same thing.

[JudyKayTee]

Although I can't find regulations pertaining to land burial, I dont think using a cardboard casket would be allowed under any circumstances. Normally bodies are buried in their caskets, inside cement lined with a material that will not allow affluent to enter the ground.

If someone is suggesting cardboard caskets, then that would destroy our ground water supply and contaminate a lot of earth.

tick

This may be correct in Canada; it is not correct in NY. My husband was buried in a plain pine box (at his request), no liner, no outer casket, no special material, no embalming. It's perfectly legal.

OP needs to return and post the name of the State.

[tickle]

Yes, I see JKT. Here are some facts I wasn't aware of, so posting to explain the 'green burial' technique below from wikipedia:

Natural burial

A natural burial ground, also known as a green burial ground or an eco-cemetery, is a cemetery where the body is returned to the earth to decompose and recycle naturally. It is an environmentally sustainable alternative to existing funeral practices.

The goal of a natural burial is to return the body to the earth in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition. The body is prepared without chemical preservatives or disinfectants such as embalming fluid, whenever that fluid contains formaldehyde or another active agent that destroys the microbial decomposers necessary to break the body down.

The body may be buried in a biodegradable coffin or simple shroud. The grave does not use a burial vault and it should be dug to a depth shallow enough to allow the same aerobic activity found in composting.

Natural burials that permit full decomposition can take place in conventional cemeteries as well as dedicated natural burial grounds. Therefore, the act of burial should be considered distinct from landscaping and management techniques (restoration ecology; habitat conservation projects; permaculture etc.) that may vary widely from site to site and are used to maintain the burial area in perpetuity.