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Regardless of what form a funeral takes, calls for more environmentally-friendly options is a trend that many in the funeral industry predict will continue to grow.
Both burials and cremations can have a significant environmental impact. With burials, the slow pace of decomposition and leaching of embalming chemicals into the soil can give rise to concern. Ways to overcome these include foregoing embalming altogether, choosing simpler coffins – including caskets made of wicker, cardboard or fabric – or using shrouds instead of a coffin.
A Law Commission survey of local authorities several years ago found growing public interest in more “natural” burials, with the use of biodegradable caskets or shrouds, no embalming, and a relatively shallow grave to speed up decomposition. Plants can be used instead of headstones, and some cemeteries have special areas set aside for this purpose.
With cremation, a body is burned for up to two hours at temperatures that can reach 800-1000 degrees Celsius. Experts estimate that a single cremation produces an average of 534 pounds of carbon dioxide – roughly a quarter of the amount the average petrol-powered car emits in a year.
In several parts of the world, greener alternatives to cremation are starting to take hold. These include resomation (also called water cremation), in which a combination of water and alkaline reduces a body to a liquid and white bone ash; and cryomation, which uses liquid nitrogen to freeze the body, with the remains pressed into a powder. Resomation is said to use 30 per cent less energy than cremation and to have a 75 per cent lower carbon output, while cryomation proponents say it releases no emissions whatsoever.
Neither option is legally available in New Zealand yet, although the recent approval of resomation in Britain has buoyed advocates here.
The founder of Christchurch-based Water Cremation Aotearoa, Debbie Richards, said the government recently paused work on overhauling the Burial and Cremation Act 1964, part of which covers body disposal methods.
While water cremation is not recognised in law here yet, she said, “we are moving forward with offering the service in Christchurch in working with the city council to meet all Resource Management Act requirements, as we believe this is what will be required once the process is regulated”.
