For those who have tried to live as sustainably as possible, the most consistent thing is to die as sustainably as possible.
An intrepid Dutch inventor makes biodegradable coffins for these people. Set mycelium (the root structure of mushrooms) and hemp fibers in a special form. Within a week, the mixture hardens into what can basically be compared to some kind of Egyptian sarcophagus. but unpainted.
Traditional wooden coffins come from trees that can take decades to grow and years to decompose in the ground. According to their advocates, these new coffins are biodegradable, leaving the remains to nature in just a month and a half.
In our 21st century, the individual spirit may have transcended the limitations of times past, but funerals are often still constrained by traditions that may not do justice to the ideas of the deceased or their loved ones.
An intrepid Dutch inventor makes biodegradable coffins (Loop Biotech).
“We all have different cultures and different ways of being buried in the world. But I think a lot of us, a big percentage, would want it any other way. And it’s been going on for 50 or 100 years,” explains Shawn Harris, an American who decided to invest in the company that makes the coffins: Loop Biotech.
At a time when more people are becoming climate conscious and focused on protecting nature, Loop Biotech claims to have the answer for those who want to close the loop of life the way they’ve always believed.
moss in the coffins
Bob Hendrikx is the founder of Loop Biotech and is 29 years old. During a recent presentation, Hendrikx, wearing a T-shirt that read “I am compost,” said he had done a lot of research into nature, “especially mushrooms, and I found that they are the biggest recyclers on the planet. So I thought, ‘Why can’t we be part of the cycle of life? And so I decided to build a coffin out of mushrooms.
These new coffins are biodegradable and deliver the remains to nature in just a month and a half (Loop Biotech).
To complete the presentation at funeral ceremonies, you can put moss in the coffins, as a mattress for the corpse.
And for those who prefer cremation, his company also offers an urn made of the same material, with a tree seedling protruding from it. The urn can be buried and releases the ashes as it decays Help breathe life into the new tree.
Moss can be placed in the coffins as a mattress for the corpse (Loop Biotech).
“Instead of ‘we die, we end up in the ground and that’s it’, there is now a new story: we can enrich life after death and continue to thrive, now as a new plant or a new tree,” explains Hendrikx in an interview .
“It brings with it a new narrative where we can be part of something bigger than ourselves,” he adds.
One of these coffins costs approx $1,060 and an urn $212.
One of these coffins costs about $1,060 (Loop Biotech).
So the question is: where to put the remains so they can become part of protected parks? In the Netherlands, Loop Biotech has partnered with Natuurbegraven Nederland (Netherlands Natural Burials) to hold funerals there six special habitats.
Loop Biotech currently has the capacity to ‘grow’ 500 coffins or urns per month to be shipped across Europe. Hendrikx assures that they are now fashionable Nordic countries.
“There is more environmental awareness in the northern European countries,” he says. “They know and understand fungi, how they work, how they are part of the ecosystem.”
PA agency.
GML