To the editor:

I hope that your May 15 editorial — “A different way of burying the dead” — leads readers to realize there are already green burial alternatives to expensive cemetery interments and energy-intensive cremation. You don’t have to go as far as Washington state’s human body composting plan to save lots of energy and money.

Right here in Essex County, the Spirit Sanctuary, part of the Split Rock Wildway Corridor, is home to the new model of green burial: a no-frills, no-fancy-casket, no-embalming-fluid, no-headstone alternative. Full information is available at theeddy.org.

Also, a number of traditional cemeteries operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany have set aside special sections for green or conservation burials. 

All of this is totally legal in New York, and growing in popularity. Wildflowers instead of crematoriums!

Peter Slocum

Keene