West Tisbury is updating its cemetery regulations to include rules for green burials, an environment-friendly form of interment defined by the town board of health as “using no embalming, no metal casket, and no burial liner or vault.”

Town selectmen voted unanimously at their regular Wednesday meeting to accept the board’s amended regulations, which specify that green burials must be requested specifically and that the cemetery commission has the right to limit them to certain areas or plots if “ground subsidence issues and equipment access may be of concern.”

No casket is required, but if one is used it must be biodegradable, such as a pine or cardboard coffin. Embalming is prohibited and only biodegradable materials can go into the ground with the body, which must be buried four feet deep.

The depth is necessary for effective decomposition, said West Tisbury resident Marie Louise Rouff, who has advocated for the town to open its cemeteries to green burials.

Bodies for green burials can be brought to the graveyard by an undertaker or by the deceased’s family and friends. Funeral homes are not required for any burials, town administrator Jen Rand said.

Green burials are also allowed on private property in West Tisbury under the new rules, but only by requesting permission from the board of health at least 90 days in advance.

Also Wednesday, selectmen agreed to let voters decide at town meeting the amount of local tax to levy on a retail marijuana shop expected to open in West Tisbury next year.

Massachusetts law permits local communities to charge up to three per cent tax on marijuana-related sales, with no restriction on how the funds may be spent.

Ms. Rand said the town meeting warrant article will request the full three per cent for the marijuana tax, which will be the second new tax to come before West Tisbury voters in as many years when they meet in April 2020.

The six per cent short-term rental tax approved at last April’s town meeting will bring an estimated $150,000 to West Tisbury’s coffers next year, town accountant Bruce Stone told the selectmen Wednesday.

That projection suggests a possible compliance issue with homeowners registering short-term rentals with the town, Ms. Rand said.

“If you look at what people who do this for a living thought [revenue from the tax] should be, it was notably higher,” she said.

To make sure all local short-term rental hosts are registered with the town, Ms. Rand said she will explore working with one of the host compliance businesses that have been soliciting her since voters approved the tax.

“My phone’s been ringing off the hook from these companies,” she said.

Among other business Wednesday, selectmen appointed Russ Hartenstine, Sue Hruby, Garrison Vieira, Ginny Jones, Faron Worthington and Kate Warner to the recently-formed municipal vulnerability committee.