A Michigan couple wanted to start a "green" cemetery, a place where the dead can be buried in a more natural and environmentally friendly manner. Local officials didn't want that—so they banned all cemeteries within the township.
Instead of pumping bodies full of preservatives like formaldehyde and burying them in wood-and-metal caskets or concrete vaults, green burials involve placing the deceased directly into the ground to decompose naturally into the soil, often in biodegradable wood caskets or cotton shrouds.
