After a lifetime of recycling, composting, turning down the thermostat and trying to eat local organic food, some people might not want to leave their bodies to be filled with a chemical preservative and buried in steel and concrete, or even cremated in a gas-fired furnace.

Now they have a couple more options.

Maine's two green cemeteries # natural burial grounds that don't allow embalming or steel caskets # are open for business. And they're getting some.

"We have sold cemetery plots," said Peter McHugh, owner of Cedar Brook Burial Ground in Limington. "I'm in no rush to do burials."

McHugh has sold four plots since last fall, he said. The buyers, who probably are in no rush either, are from around southern and coastal Maine.

He also figures he's had 90 other inquiries from around the state and the northeast. Although Maine has two active green cemeteries, there are only about 10 nationwide.

A standard plot at Cedar Brook costs $800, but there are generally few other costs to a green burial. Bodies are buried in wooden coffins, shrouds or even a favorite quilt. The discount factor # a standard funeral can cost 10 times as much # is one reason the idea has gotten so much interest and attention in recent months.

McHugh created Cedar Brook on about two acres of a 150-acre tree farm 20 miles west of Portland. He has put in a granite dust path, planted chestnut trees and done some thinning, but the area remains a natural woodlot where customers can be buried beneath trees when the time comes.

Maine's other green cemetery, Rainbow's End, is in Orrington, near Bangor. It covers nearly 15 acres of woodland and meadows next to the Penobscot River.

Rainbow's End had its first burial last December. A couple from Illinois buried their infant son in a plain wood coffin. They had been married in Maine and came back to give birth, but their son died before the delivery. Rainbow's End offered them a more natural and gentle way to let him go.

That couple, and those making future plans for green burials in Maine, are part of a generation of green-living Americans looking at death in a new way. Or, more precisely, an old way.

Embalming, formaldehyde and steel caskets are relatively new to the funeral process. All funerals were essentially green until 150 years ago.

Until recently, burial in a private family cemetery or cremation was the alternative. And those are still a preferred mode of departure for many who don't want a commercial burial, whether because of the cost or the environmental impacts.

Some, but not all, in the funeral industry have dismissed the green funeral idea. And no doubt it's not for everyone.

McHugh doesn't think he'll give up his day job as a tree farmer. But, he said, he's as confident as ever that there will be enough demand to make the effort worthwhile. And he's happy that he'll have lots of company at Cedar Brook when his turn comes to be returned to the earth.

"It's a trend, I think, that's time has come," he said.

Look here for more information on funeral alternatives in Maine, including about Rainbow's End. Look here for a more national perspective.

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