An outside the box casket, as designed by Becs Bartells, is one solution being put forward for a more eco-friendly burial. Photo: Supplied
Many of us feel the pressure to be more eco-friendly and sustainable in the way we live, but what about when we die?
Six million kilograms of CO2 is released into the atmosphere every year from cremations in New Zealand, while for every burial about 39kg is emitted.*
But as well as carbon emissions, there is also the issue with space, with many cemeteries and urupā running out of room or at capacity.
Glenn Mitchell has worked in the funeral industry for 15 years.
He is now working in paramedicine, but is part of the group Terramation Aotearoa who are keen to make terramation - more commonly known as "human composting" - legal in New Zealand.
It is a process that allows the human body to break down as it would naturally do, but in a controlled environment.
The body is placed into a container filled with straw and wood chips.
The container is then sealed and the body is left to decompose over 60 days, with the temperature and water levels closely monitored.
Mitchell said it was much faster to break down the body because of the aerobic action from oxygen still flowing in.
"At the end of the 60-day period, the body has broken down into what is essentially soil.
"Chemically, the composition is the same as you would find on the forest floor, or even in a bag of mulch you would buy from a garden centre."
The soil is then returned to the family and can be used to create a memorial garden or plant a tree.
Mitchell said a big advantage with human composting was that the body was not embalmed, so the chemical formaldehyde was avoided and could not leach toxic materials into waterways.
He said cremating a body used about 135 litres of fuel* and human composting was a far greener option.
"There is no CO2 generated, no fossil fuels are used, no land is used.
"It's not taking anything from the environment and all you're contributing back to the environment is soil."
Tane Rangihua of Ngāti Porou is working with the group to explore how the human composting process could fit in with Māori tangihanga and tikanga.
He said it was very similar to an old tikanga used by Māori called hahunga.
"In hahunga tradition states we used to hang our bodies in trees or put them in things like caves and after about a year to leave the flesh to decay ancestors would then go back and they would gather the bones."
Rangihua said it could be possible for the bones to be gathered in the terramation process.
Once he explained the process to members of his own iwi and hapu, there was interest.
But also questions around what they would do with the soil afterwards to monitor tapu and noa protocols.
"We could have a particular garden, set up on our marae where we could plant particular flowers and when people pass away, we could only use those flowers to lay them on our dead.
"One of the proposals that was put to me that that particular fertiliser be used when we're laying other relations of that person to rest, we put the dirt on top of them."
Terramation is not legal in New Zealand, but the group are working with lawyers to put forward a case. If successful, they are hoping to get things going over the next year or two with trials to see how it could work.
But water cremation is now available in Christchurch from this week at Bell Lamb and Trotter funeral directors.
Water cremation reduces the body down to its bones, using water, alkaline and heat over three to four hours. The bones are then returned as ashes.
Bell Lamb and Trotter Christchurch Funeral Services managing directors Andrew Bell and Deborah Richards. Photo: Supplied
For those who still like the idea of a casket, but want it to be cheaper and more eco-friendly, there are 'outside the box cardboard caskets'.
Designer Becs Bartells dreamed up the idea more than five years ago after her own Nana's funeral.
"At my Nana's funeral, remember just being quite scared looking at her casket and wondering why they all look the same and I'm an industrial designer, so I just kind of had the idea like, why are we not using cardboard?"
She began putting it to the test in her garage, using cement bags as weights with mockups of cardboard coffins to see how much it could bear.
Outside the box caskets and designer Becs Bartells. Photo: Supplied
It is a combination of the special type of cardboard and the way it has been built that makes Bartells caskets sturdy enough to hold 320kg.
"It's how it's folded, the direction of the flute, it's actually way more complicated than you think. People are like, 'oh, chuck me in a banana box,' but no, there's a lot of engineering that's gone into it."
The designs are customisable and cheaper than a traditional timber casket, and are part of the many options for those who want a greener goodbye.
* Terramation Aotearoa has used the estimate featured in the National Geographic by Matthews Environmental Solutions who manufacture cremation technology. Matthews estimates that one cremation produces an average of 534.6 pounds (242.2 kgs) of carbon dioxide.Terramation Aotearoa then applied this to how many cremations took place in New Zealand which was 26,600 in 2022 according to Statistics New Zealand.
* Terramation Aotearoa has used the a findings of a study on environmental impacts of funerals in the Sydney Morning Herald, which found that each burial at Adelaide's Centennial Park generated about 39 kilograms of carbon dioxide.
* Terration Aotearoa has used the findings as reported by The Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation of Australia and on the Barton Family Funeral Services website - one gigajoule of natural gas is approximately equivalent to 27 litres of fuel oil, 39 litres of propane, 26 litres of gasoline or 277 kilowatt hours of electricity.
