Almost 80,000 ballot boxes are placed in the land of cemeteries Every year without any official control over the materials used, indicate industry professionals, who warn of land and waters.
Last year they died in Portugal, according to INE, 118,975 people, a number identical to 2023. If of almost 119,000 ballot boxes are 29,000 subtracting for cremation (25%) and another 12,000 that are deposited in almost 80,000 ballot boxes that go to Earth.
In Portugal only the rules are subject to the ballot boxes that go to cremation. Those that come to the earth in the cemeteries may contain everything from glues to varnishes, hardware or synthetic tissues.
In the accounts of the sector heard by Lusa, if each ballot box occupies an average of 1.5 square meters, each year are occupied 115,000 square meters of soil with ballot boxes without control of polluting emissions. Practically 10,000 square meters per month.
The lack of official control does not want to say that there is no part of the operators that concern. Paulo Carreira, acting president of the Portuguese Association of Funeral Sector Professionals () and Director General of Servilusa, currently the largest funeral service company in Portugal, says that 10 years have only used “Green” ballot boxes, made in Portugal.
In an interview with Lusa Paulo Carreira warns of soil pollution in cemeteries, but also for another problem. It is that when using materials that are inside “synthetic sheets, polyester, plastics, wood that is not wood but clusters of wood full of glue and counterplacks, varnishes and paints, and even more in a low oxygenation cemetery, and little moisture the body is there without decomposition”. In three years it is difficult to have, he says.
The funeral ballot box that leads the ecological segment is called JorisCastro and is in Amarante. It has a 20% quota of the market, makes 1,500 to 1,600 ballot boxes per month, 18 thousand in 2024. It was created 47 years ago and is the largest factory in the Iberian Peninsula.
Joaquim Castro, founder and administrator, states in an interview with Lusa that she started in the ecological ballot box in 1999 and five years later she had already expanded the wooden ballot box that deteriorated more easily and do not use polluting products such as resins or chemicals.
“Most factories are not environmentally friendly, when much 30% are. Government and municipalities do not want to know,” he notes.
There are over 4,000 cemeteries
He adds later: “We have already asked the Ministries of Environment and Health that were more rigorous. There are over 4,000 cemeteries, with toxic products that contaminate the waters, causing disease. There are still many houses without treated waters.”
Joaquim Castro says that there is even a law, from 1962, from when the transition from the wooden coffin lined the cloth to the more industrial ballot, with varnish, but “that no one applies.”
“The 1962 Law says the ballot box has to be done with biodegradable wood, cannot carry toxic products and the interiors must be biodegradable. No one fulfills the law,” he shoots, “Thousands of tons of toxic products such as varnishes and polyester are bury.” But if a can of forgotten varnish is left outside your factory “it’s a huge fine.”
Joaquim Castro ensures that an ecological ballot is no longer expensive and the body decomposes more easily.
“The servilusa has not lost a single client nor has a single customer dissatisfied because the ballot box is ‘green’. Because the ballot box is the same,” says Paulo Career in the interview, emphasizing the role of the funeral agent in this matter of environmental sustainability.
In the company that drives guarantees that there is this concern, explains that even the wreaths have a life cycle that does not end in the cemetery, are small vessels that the family distributes later, that the handles or are wood or metal that withdraws before the funeral.
“I have little doubt that there is contamination of soils in a cemetery full of ballot boxes with synthetic varnishes and paints. Because it is not organic matter that contaminates,” says the official, adding another factor that can be contaminating, the clothes that wears the dead. “We have this concern with clothing.”
The servilusa makes about 6,500 funerals a year, all sustainable. And the others? Paulo Career answers: There is no data, but if I say that 10% has environmental concerns is very much.
Carlos Almeida, president of the National Association of Lutuous Companies, Ring, also admits that the percentage of sustainable ballot boxes that go to Earth walk around 10%.
In an interview with Lusa Carlos Almeida agency states that there is increasing concern for urns and ecological varnishes, still missing the same sensitivity regarding clothes.
“Our contribution was to create a certified brand, CNUF, which is the possibility of certifying a sustainable ballot box, environmentally friendly,” he says. But in the face of the question of the percentage of certified ballot boxes answers: “Maybe about 10%. Sympatically about 10%.”
The ring, which reuses corpses for use in animals, says there is slow sustainability progress and that the association is minimizing environmental losses. But it admits that the sector needs changes.
“The mayors do nothing to change anything, because if they are never elected again,” he laments.
On the issue of sustainability in the sector, Lusa also sought to know the opinion of the association of funeral agents in Portugal but this has not been possible so far.
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