Not embalmed, body bathed by his son and dressed in a favourite outfit. Coffin made of simple cardboard and not lined with plastic. It had rope handles — all materials that were biodegradable.

The funeral procession followed the hearse on foot from the family home to the nearby Mullumbimby cemetery as music bellowed from the car.

And, when it was time, his body was placed into the earth just 1 metre deep —  3.3 feet — while the service was held by the Hart’s family friend: their neighbour.

In: Why Diane honoured her husband Michael’s death with a natural burial, Dinah Lewis Boucher (ABC News, 09 August 2022) reports on a death and a funeral that was about as green as you can get in Australia these days. 

A few points to get us in the mindset for doing death more naturally include:
•             Only one body per burial plot
•             No embalming chemicals
•             What the body is dressed in needs to be biodegradable
•             Compost and other green matter are added to the grave
•             Ideally, natural burial is also a shroud burial. You don’t need to have a coffin to be buried in a grave (although in some states it will be required for transport to the grave)
•             A natural burial site would look like any park or bushland, with no statues or tombstones

But here’s the take home line: “It’s good to start the conversation around death and dying before it happens,” says Diane Hart.

There’s a lot more to this story that we encourage you to read at this link: Honoured Michael with a natural burial