Key differences

Natural burials have two key differences from conventional burials: the type of coffin and the way the body is preserved.

A pine "eco-friendly" coffin

Coffins

In a natural burial, the deceased is buried in either a shroud or an untreated wooden coffin. Customwood or medium-density-fibreboard (MDF) coffins in a high-gloss veneer – the mainstay of the funeral industry – aren’t used.

Embalming

Embalming is also ruled out because it uses hazardous substances to preserve the body: it involves draining blood and other fluids from the body and injecting mixtures containing formaldehyde, paraformaldehyde, methanol and phenol into the arteries and abdominal cavity. These substances are toxins and their use is controlled. The Environmental Risk Management Authority lists 93 embalming products with either toxic or flammable properties.

Embalming is commonplace in the funeral industry but its widespread use is relatively recent. Otago University lecturer Dr Cyril Schafer says embalming wasn’t much used until the 1950s – and then it grew rapidly as funeral directors took up the practices of their US counterparts. “Embalming was increasingly linked to the idea of a positive ‘memory picture’ associated with viewing the dead before burial or cremation,” Dr Schafer says.

The Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand describes embalming as a process that “[gives] a natural appearance and removes health hazard, which is particularly important if viewing of the deceased is to take place”. But Lynda Hannah of funeral company Living Legacies believes the industry wrongly encourages embalming when it’s not needed.

Natural alternatives
Lynda doesn’t use embalming. “How fast a body decomposes depends on many factors such as the time of year, the temperature, and the condition of the body. There are natural ways to keep an unembalmed body cool – such as using ice – to help slow decomposition and prolong the period before the funeral,” she says.

Simon Manning agrees embalming isn’t a necessity. Simon is the Director of Harbour City Funeral Home in Wellington and has been involved with most of the funerals for people buried at Makara’s natural cemetery.

Simon believes the industry has been too ready to dismiss those wanting greener alternatives and too eager to dictate what should happen. In 2008, he set up the “Eco Funerals” website, which lists 15 affiliated funeral companies offering natural burial options. But Simon acknowledges companies like these remain the exception.