What actually happens to a casket after it goes into the ground? Does it matter what it's made of? Does "eco-friendly" mean anything real here, or is it just a nice word people put on a product?
These are fair questions, and the honest answer is: it does matter, more than most funeral homes will tell you, mostly because most funeral homes aren't selling what green burial actually calls for.
What green burial actually means
A green burial, at its core, is a return to how burial worked for most of human history: no metal casket, no vault, no embalming chemicals working their way into the ground. Just a body, wrapped or boxed in something the earth can actually take back. That's the whole idea, and it's not new — it's older than the funeral industry itself. It's just become harder to find, because most of what gets sold to grieving families is built to last, when the entire point of a green burial is that it shouldn't.
A true green burial casket is:
- Built from untreated, biodegradable materials — no metal fasteners, no synthetic glue, no plastic liner
- Free of toxic finishes or sealants that would slow decomposition or leach into soil
- Simple by design, not stripped-down as an afterthought — the simplicity is the whole point
Why we built the Eco-Friendly plan
We get asked about this often enough that it became clear a real answer needed to exist — not a repurposed standard design with the metal hardware swapped out, but something built from the ground up around the actual requirements: no metal, no glue, dovetail joinery doing the work that screws and adhesive usually do. It's a full-scale pattern, dimensioned and ready to build, and it holds together the honest way — through the wood itself, not through anything that has to be added to it.
Is it more work to build than a casket held together with screws? A little, yes. Dovetails ask more of you than a pocket screw does. But if you've made it this far into a page about green burial, you're probably not looking for the easiest option. You're looking for the right one.
Building it yourself
The Eco-Friendly plan is available as an instant digital download — full dimensions, full cut list, and notes from the actual builds we've done with it in our own shop. If you'd rather have someone walk you through the process directly, a one-on-one consultation is there for exactly that.
This is quiet, honest work. We're glad to help you do it right.