Many people want to leave the Earth better than when they came into it. And a new style of burial is setting out to do just that. 

Green burials are gaining traction across the country as families look for a more natural way to find a final resting place that doesn’t involve embalming fluids, upright monuments or concrete vaults. That could include “human composting” – where the body is transformed into soil over 45 days – or natural burials, where natural materials are used to allow the body to support and bolster nature over time. 

At Steelmantown Cemetery, New Jersey’s first official green burial preserve founded in 2007, the organization offers natural burials, providing the deceased and their families a funeral process grounded in peace, nature and beauty. 

When you walk through Steelmantown to lay your loved one to rest, it doesn’t feel like a cemetery, but more like a walk in the woods. The “grave” sites are surrounded by massive oak trees, pine trees and natural cedar bogs. And instead of being buried in a coffin, loved ones are put to rest using materials that will decompose over time. 

Steelmantown offers four options for burial: a natural burial in the forest, a burial marked with a memorial tree or shrub, a cremation where remains are added to concrete used to build artificial reefs around the globe and a cremation with ashes scattered along the entrance of the site’s eco-trail. (The grounds also feature three miles of eco-trails where families can walk to remember their loved ones.) 

The site offers free educational tours of the grounds, with the next one happening on March 14 at noon.