By Bob Paterson Under current Illinois law, yes, green burial is legal in Illinois. State law recognizes green burial as a method intended to reduce waste, toxic chemicals, and environmental impacts associated with conventional burial. A person may generally be buried without embalming and without a concrete burial vault when applicable burial, cemetery, and disposition requirements are followed. However, individual cemeteries can establish rules governing the types of burials they allow, so not every Illinois cemetery is required to provide green burial.
What Does Illinois Law Say About Green Burial?
The Illinois Cemetery Oversight Act expressly recognizes “green burial or cremation disposition.” It describes these as burial or cremation practices that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, waste, and toxic chemicals normally associated with conventional methods.
A typical green burial may involve placing an unembalmed body in a biodegradable wooden or cardboard casket, wicker container, or burial shroud. Concrete vaults, metal caskets, chemical embalming fluids, and other materials intended to delay natural decomposition are usually avoided.
Illinois does not require families to use a particular green-burial certification system. However, the burial still has to comply with Illinois public-health, cemetery, and disposition laws.
Is Embalming Required Before Burial in Illinois?
Generally, no. Illinois does not impose a universal requirement that every deceased person be embalmed before burial.
Illinois law regulates funeral directors and embalmers and specifically prohibits misleading consumers about whether embalming is legally necessary. Embalming normally requires authorization from the person responsible for making funeral arrangements unless authorities direct embalming or a particular law requires it.
This makes an unembalmed burial possible in Illinois and is one of the main reasons traditional green burial can be legally performed.
A funeral home may still have procedures concerning refrigeration, transportation, timing, or handling of an unembalmed body.
Is a Concrete Burial Vault Required in Illinois?
No. Illinois does not impose a statewide rule requiring every grave to contain a concrete burial vault or grave liner.
In fact, the Illinois Burial of Dead Bodies Act specifically addresses burials where the remains are not enclosed in a concrete, fiberglass, or similar hard outer enclosure.
For such a burial, there must generally be at least 18 inches of earth at the shallowest point above the receptacle containing the remains.
This provision allows burial without the kind of concrete vault commonly used in conventional cemeteries.
However, individual cemeteries may have their own rules requiring burial vaults or grave liners for maintenance reasons, such as preventing graves from settling. A person seeking a completely natural burial therefore needs to choose a cemetery that permits burial without one.
Is a Traditional Casket Required for Green Burial?
Illinois does not generally require a conventional metal or hardwood casket for an ordinary earth burial.
Green cemeteries may permit biodegradable containers, simple wooden coffins, wicker caskets, cardboard containers, or burial shrouds depending on their individual rules.
The important distinction is between what state law requires and what a particular cemetery requires under its own rules.
A cemetery can maintain reasonable operational rules concerning interment. Families planning a green burial should therefore confirm the cemetery’s requirements before purchasing or making a biodegradable coffin or selecting a shroud burial.
Where Can a Green Burial Take Place in Illinois?
A green burial can be conducted at a cemetery that permits this form of interment.
Some cemeteries may have an entire natural burial area, while others may designate only particular sections for vault-free or environmentally focused burial.
Illinois cemetery authorities are allowed to establish rules governing their property. Those rules should be disclosed to consumers and applied consistently.
This means a family cannot require every conventional cemetery to abandon its normal burial requirements merely because green burial itself is legal under Illinois law.
The practical step is to locate a cemetery whose rules specifically permit the type of natural burial the family wants.
Is a Burial Permit Still Required?
Yes. Choosing an environmentally friendly burial does not eliminate Illinois’s death-registration and disposition requirements.
A deceased person’s body generally cannot be finally interred in a grave, vault, or tomb without the required Permit for Disposition of Dead Human Body.
The death certificate and other legally required documentation must also be completed as part of the process.
Green burial changes the physical method of burial; it does not create an exemption from the state’s legal documentation requirements.
Can You Have a Green Burial on Private Property?
Illinois law recognizes the concept of a family burying ground, but this should not be interpreted as permission to bury a body anywhere on privately owned land without further legal consideration.
A burial still requires proper disposition documentation, and requirements concerning the property, cemetery status, land use, access, and local regulations may apply.
Someone planning a private family burial should therefore determine whether the proposed property can legally be used for burial before interment occurs.
Simply owning several acres of rural property does not by itself remove the normal legal requirements governing disposition of human remains.
Does a Cemetery Have to Offer Green Burial?
No. Illinois’s recognition of green burial does not mean every cemetery must provide it.
A cemetery may establish reasonable rules concerning burial containers, grave preparation, maintenance, equipment, and other operational matters.
For example, one cemetery may allow a biodegradable casket without a vault, while another may require an outer burial container throughout most or all of its property.
Consumers should ask for the cemetery’s written rules before making arrangements if avoiding embalming, concrete vaults, or conventional caskets is important.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Can a family make its own biodegradable casket for an Illinois green burial?
Potentially, yes. Illinois does not impose a general requirement that a burial casket be purchased from a funeral home. However, the cemetery may have reasonable rules concerning the dimensions, construction, handling, or suitability of burial containers.
Q2. Can flowers and personal objects be buried with the body?
That generally depends on cemetery rules. A green cemetery may restrict plastics, metals, synthetic fabrics, floral foam, electronics, and other materials that do not readily biodegrade even though conventional cemeteries might permit them.
Q3. Is human composting considered the same thing as green burial in Illinois?
No. Natural organic reduction, sometimes called human composting, is a different method of disposition. Illinois lawmakers have considered separate legislation to regulate it, but it should not be assumed legal merely because conventional green burial is permitted.
Q4. Can a person arrange a green burial in advance?
Yes. A person can discuss green burial preferences in advance and purchase applicable cemetery or funeral arrangements. Because individual cemetery requirements can differ, the person should make sure the selected cemetery actually allows the desired vault-free, unembalmed, or biodegradable burial method.