Green is the new black for funerals.

Green is the new black for funerals.

A Planning application for Ireland’s first natural burial ground has been submitted. The Green Graveyard Company has leased a site at Woodbrook House in Wexford. The natural burial trend has grown in the UK and now a growing number of Irish people are interested.

Natural-burial grounds return the body to the earth and are seen as environmentally sustainable. alternatives to present funeral practices. They avoid traditional marble monuments and concrete dividers in favour of natural landscapes and overgrowth.

There are more than 200 ‘green cemeteries’ in Britain and more than 300 in America, where new land is continuously being allocated for them.

If planning permission is granted, the burial plots will have small markings and microchips to let a handheld control identify graves even in areas that are overgrown.

In Ireland, the green-burial pioneers have concentrated using  eco-friendly coffins until now but the Irish Association of Funeral Directors reports increasing requests for greener coffins as people follow the example of celebrities such as Keith Floyd, the chef who was cremated last year in a coffin made from banana leaves.