User:Kzoup/sandbox

We are adding information to the sub-section "Canada" under the "Locations" heading on the already-existing Natural Burial Wikipedia page. The significance of this addition is to increase the very limited information given to Canada's eco-friendly funeral practices and allow people to get a better grasp for what exists in this country. It's added to the already existing Natural Burial page because there is plenty of overarching information on the page and people will gravitate to this page anyways for eco-friendly options, we are now supplying country-specific information.

I also put some suggestions on the Natural Burial "Talk" page, under the heading "this article is terribly written".

Canada
Each province and territory within Canada has its own resources and regulations for handling death and the disposal of the body. In British Columbia, green burials are treated the same way as traditional burials, as embalming is not legally required for interment. All burials are required to follow the regulations set forth by their respective provincial government.

With growing interest in promoting eco-friendly practices, natural burials have been making rounds in various Canadian news outlets. Some debate still lies in what makes certain funeral practices eco-friendly and how cemeteries make these claims as no government-imposed standard or definition currently exist.

Eco-friendly funeral practices in Canada can include:
 * Sea Scatterings
 * Tree planting
 * Green/natural burials

Canada offers a wide range of environmentally-friendly services and alternatives to conventional funerary customs and corpse disposal practices in Canada. The Green Burial Council is an environmental certification organization for green burials practiced in North America (Canada and the US). Environmental certificates are offered to cemeteries, funeral homes, and product manufacturers involved in the funeral industry. These certificates would allow consumers to distinguish between the three different levels of green burial grounds and their appropriate standards. The Green Burial Council also offers information on the types of caskets, urns, and embalming tools that would fall under the eco-friendly category and be available for North American consumers.

The Green Burial Society of Canada was founded in 2013 and their goal is to ensure standards of certification are set for green burial practices. The society emphasizes five principles of green burial: no embalming, direct earth burial, ecological restoration and conservation, communal memorialization, and the optimization of land use.

The Natural Burial Association (NBA) is an independent, non-profit organization established in 2005 to promote natural burial in Canada and to encourage the establishment of natural burial sites. The organization lists the four current natural cemetery sites on their website located in: Victoria, British Columbia, Cobourg, Ontario, Brampton, Ontario, and Pickering, Ontario.

Royal Oak Burial Park
Located in Victoria, British Columbia, the Royal Oak Burial Park opened the Woodlands gravesite for green burial space in the cemetery in October 2008, dedicating its space to burials that allow for the natural decomposition of human remains which in turn provides nutrients for the surrounding ecosystem. The area has native-growing Coastal Douglas Fir along with a variety of ecologically similar tree species, which the cemetery claims to keep as close to the natural ecosystem as possible. In order to be interred in Royal Oak Burial Park, embalming of the body is prohibited. The body must be kept in its natural state, which is then placed in some form of biodegradable container or shroud. Traditional grave markers are not used, but rather families are given options to engrave natural boulders or plants.

Union Cemetery
Found in Cobourg, Ontario, the Cobourg Union Cemetery is located on 20 acres of land and currently contains 3,800 burial lots. The cemetery is made up of both traditional burials with headstones and regular interment practices, as well as a green space dedicated to eco-friendly burials. Consumers are given information about biodegradable caskets and procedures for a green burial. Families are not allowed to place permanent markers on the grave sites other than native species of plants such as flowers and bushes.

Meadowvale Cemetery
The Meadowvale Cemetery originally opened in 1981 in Brampton, Ontario, with the green burial section of the cemetery opening in 2012. The cemetery allows for both burial and cremation as long as embalming is done without formaldehyde or other harsh chemicals. They also ensure that remains are placed into a non-toxic, biodegradable container. Graves are not allowed to be marked with traditional headstones, but they offer a granite stone at the site's entrance for name engraving.

Duffin Meadows Cemetery
Duffin Meadows Cemetery is located in Pickering, Ontario, and is attached to the original traditional cemetery. The cemetery offers natural burials for individuals who have been embalmed to eco-friendly standards, then interred using biodegradable shrouds and caskets. Grave sites will be left to grow over naturally, meaning grass will not be mowed and the placement of artificial flowers and other markers will not be allowed.