The green funeral and cemetery industry is facing criticism due to Penrose Investigation
FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - The green funeral and cemetery industry is facing some criticism after a massive investigation into a green funeral home that was improperly storing over 180 bodies.
The owner of the Colorado Burial Preserve in Fremont County, Emily Miller, owns a natural or green burial site in the small town of Florence. She spoke to KRDO about some misinformation that is being spread about the industry.
"I had a little bit of negative chatter online in the comments or in my reviews from people who were looking for information on the Penrose story. And I'm so close to it that, you know, it was a misconception that I had any involvement with them at all," said Miller.
However, the owner said she has never had a partnership with the owner of the Return to Nature Funeral Home.
"I can only interpret this story of what's coming out of Penrose as the actions of someone who is super sick, just disturbed, not right in our society," said Miller.
Miller said she wants to clear up any confusion in regards to "green" burials.
At the burial site, no chemicals are used due to their negative effects on the environment, according to the owner.
"This is simply saying no thank you to the embalming and no thank you to some of the more impervious containers and choosing something biodegradable instead," said Miller.
Birdhouses and flowers are growing out of the natural burial site, something a little different than a conventional cemetery. But, after nearly two hundred bodies were found improperly stored at the Return to Nature funeral home in Penrose, some in the community have been raising concerns about the services Miller offers.
"I do think there's a little bit of confusion of what is meant by green or natural death care, especially as we hear this nightmare coming out of Penrose. Those people weren't being stored properly. Yes, that means they weren't embalmed or refrigerated. But that's different from when we're choosing to have no embalming and then having a burial sort of under planned and controlled circumstances," said Miller.
Two years ago, Miller says she tried to connect with Jon Hallford, the owner of Return to Nature Funeral Home because she thought they could connect each other with clients who wanted green services.
"He resisted my early attempts to get in contact and to meet him, and when I did finally have a meeting with them, it sort of amounted to nothing," said Miller.
Most natural burial services will go through a funeral home for at least some of their services, such as transportation. Miller said she only worked with one family who used Return to Nature funeral home to transport their loved one.
"I've been seeing a lot of misinformation in the idea that green burial or a natural no embalming burial would always be disrespectful or gross when really, you know, this is something that can be witnessed every step of the way by the loved ones," said Miller.
The owner said any funeral home can provide natural burial services if a person requests it, but there are only a handful of green burial sites similar to the Colorado Burial Preserve in the state.
