Green burials are legal in all 50 states. No federal law and no state law bans burying a body without embalming chemicals, a metal casket, or a concrete vault. What varies, and what trips people up, is the layer of state and local rules that governs permits, timing, burial depth, private-land use, and what any given cemetery will allow on its own property.
What a Green Burial Actually Is
A green burial skips chemical preservation, metal caskets, and concrete vaults. The body is kept cool with refrigeration or dry ice rather than embalmed, placed in a biodegradable container such as a shroud, a plain wood casket, or a wicker or cardboard box, and buried without a vault lining the grave. The body decomposes and returns to the soil.
None of that is legally unusual. The elaborate infrastructure Americans associate with a “normal” burial is a relatively recent development, and the law does not require most of it.
What Federal Law Says
Federal law does not require embalming, refrigeration, or any other preservation method.1Legal Information Institute. Embalming The most important federal rule for anyone planning a green burial is the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule, at 16 CFR Part 453. It does not just permit green burial; it protects your ability to arrange one.
Under the Funeral Rule, a funeral provider cannot tell you that state or local law requires embalming when it doesn’t, and must disclose that embalming is not legally required except in certain limited circumstances. They cannot require you to buy a casket for immediate burial. They cannot claim that state or local law requires an outer burial container when it doesn’t, and they must inform you that in most areas no such law exists. If you buy a casket, shroud, or urn elsewhere, they must accept it and cannot charge a handling fee. Every funeral home must give you an itemized General Price List so you can purchase only what you want rather than a package.2Federal Trade Commission. Complying with the Funeral Rule
The required disclosure on the price list reads: “Except in certain special cases, embalming is not required by law.”3eCFR. 16 CFR 453.3 Misrepresentations
When Embalming Is Required by State Law
No state requires embalming for every burial. Some states require embalming or refrigeration in specific situations: most commonly when burial or cremation won’t happen within a set window after death (often 24 to 48 hours), when the body will be transported across state lines, or when the person died of certain communicable diseases.
For a green burial, this usually isn’t a barrier. If the burial happens promptly and the body isn’t crossing state lines, embalming is almost certainly not required where you live. Refrigeration handles the timing rule in the states that have one.
Caskets and Vaults
No state law requires you to buy a casket for burial, and the FTC has stated that outer burial containers are not required by state law anywhere in the United States.4Federal Trade Commission. The FTC Funeral Rule A shroud, a cardboard box, or a wicker basket is legal.
Individual cemeteries are a different matter. A cemetery is a private business and can set rules that go beyond the law, and many conventional cemeteries require a vault or grave liner to keep the ground from settling. The Funeral Rule requires funeral homes to disclose this distinction: “In most areas of the country, state or local law does not require that you buy a container to surround the casket in the grave. However, many cemeteries require that you have such a container so that the grave will not sink in.”2Federal Trade Commission. Complying with the Funeral Rule If a cemetery tells you a vault is required, they mean by their policy. A dedicated green burial cemetery won’t have that policy.
Permits and Paperwork
Every burial in the United States requires two documents: a death certificate and a burial or disposition permit. The death certificate is completed by the attending physician or medical examiner and filed with the state vital records office. The burial permit, issued by the local health department or registrar, authorizes you to transport and bury the remains. A legal burial cannot proceed without both. Certified copies of a death certificate typically cost between $15 and $25 depending on the state.
Funeral directors normally handle this paperwork, and families running a fully do-it-yourself burial can usually pull the permits directly. A few states require otherwise. New York requires a licensed funeral director to supervise the burial process, and Connecticut and a small number of other states have similar restrictions. Check your state’s rule before assuming you can bury someone without a funeral director involved.
Burial on Private Property
Most states allow burial on private land, but the details are heavily local. In the majority of states the question is left to local zoning authorities, so your county or municipality decides whether a home burial is permitted on your property. Washington requires burials to take place in an established cemetery. Indiana and Louisiana generally require an established cemetery but allow families to apply for a special family plot permit.
Even where home burial is broadly legal, you will run into practical requirements. Most jurisdictions want confirmation that your property’s zoning designation allows a burial, and some require a formal application to establish a family cemetery. Local health codes commonly set minimum distances from wells, water sources, septic systems, and property lines. Some states, such as Colorado, require you to record the burial location with the county within 30 days, creating a permanent public record tied to the property. Establishing a private burial plot may also require a professional land survey, which can run from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
Think About Resale Before You Bury
Burying someone on your land creates a long-term legal entanglement with the property. Several states require you to disclose the existence of a burial site to prospective buyers before selling, and even in states without an explicit disclosure statute, failing to mention a gravesite could support a fraud claim. Descendants of the buried person may also retain a legal right to visit or maintain the grave, an easement that runs with the land regardless of who owns it. If there is any real chance you will sell the property, weigh that against the appeal of a home burial.
How Deep the Grave Has to Be
About a third of states set minimum grave depth requirements, and they vary widely. New Jersey requires the top of the burial container to sit at least four feet below the surface. California, Montana, and North Carolina require 18 inches of soil cover above the body. Texas, Indiana, and Mississippi require 24 inches. Many states, including Alabama and Alaska, have no statewide depth rule at all and leave the question to local authorities or cemetery policy.
Depth matters more in a green burial than in a conventional one because there is no vault acting as a barrier. Green burial cemeteries typically aim for 18 to 24 inches of soil cover, which the Green Burial Council considers sufficient to prevent any detectable odor at the surface.5Green Burial Council. Green Burial FAQ and Planning Tips Burying deeper than roughly 3 to 3.5 feet actually slows decomposition by moving the body below the oxygen-rich layer of soil.
Where You Can Have One
If private land burial isn’t practical, the alternative is a dedicated green burial cemetery or a conventional cemetery with a green burial section.
The Green Burial Council certifies cemeteries at three levels. A basic “green burial” cemetery prohibits embalming fluids, requires biodegradable containers, and doesn’t allow vaults. A “natural burial” cemetery goes further, maintaining or enhancing native plant and animal habitat and conducting ecological assessments. A “conservation burial” ground partners with a land trust or conservation organization and protects the land with a permanent conservation easement, so the land can never be developed.6Green Burial Council. GBC Cemetery Standard Documents
Some conventional cemeteries have added green burial sections where they waive their usual vault requirement and allow biodegradable containers. These are often more widely available than dedicated natural cemeteries. Ask any cemetery directly about their specific rules, because “green burial section” means different things at different facilities.
A Note on Human Composting and Water Cremation
Green burial in the traditional sense is legal everywhere. Two newer disposition methods that appeal to the same reasons are not.
Natural organic reduction, commonly called human composting, converts a body into soil over several weeks in a controlled vessel with materials like wood chips and straw. As of mid-2025, 13 states have legalized it: Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington (the first, in 2019). Most other states haven’t addressed it in their statutes.
Alkaline hydrolysis, also called water cremation or aquamation, uses water and a chemical solution to break the body down, leaving bone fragments. Roughly 29 states have legalized it, though in a handful the process is legal on paper but no licensed provider currently offers it. New Hampshire is the only state that has explicitly banned it.
If either method interests you, confirm your state has legalized the specific process. An unlicensed disposition method can create serious legal problems for your family.
What It Costs
A conventional funeral with embalming, a metal casket, a viewing, and a concrete vault averages roughly $10,000. A green burial removes most of those line items, and many come in between $2,000 and $5,000 depending on the cemetery’s plot fees and your choice of container. Shrouds can cost under $100. Simple pine caskets typically run $500 to $2,000.
The plot itself is the biggest variable. A plot in a dedicated natural cemetery may cost more or less than one in a conventional cemetery depending on where you live. Some green cemeteries also require a contribution to an endowment fund, often around 10% of the plot price, to maintain the land in perpetuity. Ask about that upfront. If you are considering private land burial, budget for potential zoning applications, land surveys, deed recording fees, and site preparation.
The legal barriers to a green burial are lower than most people expect. The obstacles that actually derail plans tend to be logistical: finding a cemetery that will accommodate one, navigating local permit rules, and making sure your family knows what you want, in writing, before they have to act on it. Put your preferences in your advance directive or a letter of instruction, secure a plot or zoning confirmation while it isn’t urgent, and choose a funeral provider who has done green burials before. The Funeral Rule gives you the right to buy only the services you want,4Federal Trade Commission. The FTC Funeral Rule but the process runs more smoothly with a provider who isn’t learning it on your family’s timeline.