A small but growing number of Dunedin people are pushing for the establishment of a site for natural burials in Dunedin.
Advocates for Natural Burial in Dunedin will make a submission to the Dunedin City Council next week, one of 183 groups or individuals planning to attend the week-long annual plan hearing.
Natural burial involves burying an unembalmed body in a grave about 1m deep, where organisms that assist decomposition are found.
A casket of soft untreated wood is used, and the plot is filled with aerobic, nutrient-rich soil, with a local native tree planted on top.
The idea was to return the body's nutrients to the ecosystem rapidly and without pollution, and the burial method is already in use at a cemetery in Wellington.
Teresa Cadogan, of Dunedin, who has lodged a submission and will be speaking to it next week, said she and friends within the Quaker movement had become interested in the idea, which fitted with their beliefs of living simply.
The idea, which appealed to both environmental and spiritual beliefs as a "final statement", was to be friendly to the environment by not using cremation, or burying a body "full of chemicals".
It would meet the needs of people who wanted a simple, environmentally friendly burial, and provide a public amenity by restoring bush on otherwise unproductive land.
Mrs Cadogan said she had set up a Facebook site to help raise awareness.
Hope and Sons funeral director Michael Hope, who has met the group, said this week the idea had been around for some time nationally, and was something he had heard about at conferences.
"I think it's something some people would like.
"It takes people with a bit of passion to make this sort of thing happen."
There was land beside the Green Park cemetery in Brighton Rd, a cemetery that was coming to the end of its useful life, that could be used, he said.
Asked about the health and safety aspects of natural burial, he said, considering it was happening in Wellington, it must satisfy such requirements.
Council community and recreation services manager Mick Reece's response to the submission said staff would contact the Wellington City Council and other local authorities for information on the idea, and consider the findings.
The annual plan hearing starts on Monday at the Municipal Chambers at 8.50am.
