Focus: Environment piece on green burial grounds, noting that the Funeral Cons

Focus: Environment piece on green burial grounds, noting that the Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA) of Maine, an Auburn-based nonprofit, is exploring a green cemetery in Orrington. Ellen Hills, a retired Solon schoolteacher, hopes to donate her 14 acres of land for the cemetery. In a green cemetery, the deceased are not embalmed and they are buried in biodegradable caskets or shawls. Graves are scattered lightly across the landscape with most of the land being left in its natural state. In addition to their appeal to environmentalists, green burials are in line with the burial practices of some Jews and Muslims. With comments by Darrell Cooper, president of the Jewish Funeral Home in Portland; and Clough Toppan, director of the division of environmental health at the Maine Center for Disease Control Prevention