Natural burial options probed

Locals dying for an organic twist to their final resting place could be in luck.

Whangarei District Council has spent the last three years looking into the natural burial phenomenon as part of the 50 year plan for Maunu Cemetery.

The district is keeping pace with the practice of being buried with no embalming, in a casket of cardboard or untreated pine coffin a metre deep, with a native tree instead of a tombstone - which has gained traction nationwide.

Over the years, requests about natural burials from the public have filtered into the district council prompting the exploration into the fad, WDC cemetery manager Helen Cairns said.

"We've looked at possible sites we could put aside for a natural burial area. We're taking requests from the community and trying to put those in some kind of plan so when we create a site we know it's what the community wants and what would work best," she said.

Morris & Morris Funerals managing director Gary Taylor said the Whangarei based funeral directors had occasionally been asked about the possibility of a natural burial.

"It's very difficult because I think people have different ideas as to what natural burial might mean."

WDC spokeswoman Rachel Pascoe said 70 to 75 per cent of people in Whangarei are cremated.

And while the 50 year plan is a work in progress, Ms Cairns invited members of the public wanting to share their opinion on the subject to do so.

"When we do get natural burial - if we get natural burial - we want to make sure that we do it right and in the specific way people want it. I'm more than happy to talk the subject over with people."

The natural burial method involves rapid bio-degradable non-pollutant caskets, compost soil and over planting with native trees, Natural Burials founder Mark Blackham said.

"The burial is effectively an environmental donation - both physically and monetarily. By being buried, the person provides resources to start and sustain the natural restoration of land, for the regeneration of native flora and fauna."

In a natural burial, because bodies were buried less than a metre deep and were not embalmed, they would decompose within 10 years compared with about 100 years for traditional burials.

Another point of difference was cost.

While Mr Taylor said providing a rough figure for the price of a traditional funeral was too difficult "because everyone is different," he did say caskets can cost from $400 up to $4,500.

Other costs could include cremation, a council plot and interment fee, whereas, natural burials have a price tag of around $1000 to $2000.

Wellington, Palmerston North and New Plymouth have natural burial sites.

In February last year, a Dunedin City Councillor claimed natural burials could one day become the district's only method of interment.

Hamilton City Council also considered catering for natural burials in 2010.