Natural undertaking: Adelaide Cemeteries Authority CEO Eric Heapy

ABOUT one in 10 South Australians will opt for an environmentally friendly burial within 15-20 years, as more people go green in life as well as death.

That is the prediction of Adelaide Cemeteries Authority CEO Eric Heapy, just seven months after Adelaide’s first natural burial ground, Wirra Wonga, opened at Enfield’s Memorial Park Cemetery.

In natural burials a body is laid to rest in a shroud or biodegradable coffin, allowing for a quicker decomposition. No toxic chemicals are used in preparing the body and headstones are replaced with native trees and plants.

Mr Heapy said within two decades natural burials would account for about 1000 of SA’s 12,500 annual deaths. “There is certainly a growing pressure from the community for a much more sustainable way of undertaking a burial,” Mr Heapy said.

“The community have an expectation in terms of what a cemetery traditionally offers; some people want headstones to mark the graves and there is another sector who want a more environmentally friendly option.” There have been eight natural burials at Enfield Memorial Park since the method was introduced there last November.

Kevin Hartley, director of White Knight Funerals and president of the Australian Natural Earth Burial Society, arranged six of the burials and said the families were “looking for the greenest possible funeral they could find”.

“The natural burial ground is not only a natural return to the earth for people but a substantial environmental project,” he said. He too said the method would grow in popularity and called for an Adelaide memorial park dedicated solely for natural burials.