The afterlife has arrived for people who want to live (and die) sustainably.
To create what might be likened to the appearance of an unpainted Egyptian sarcophagus, a Dutch inventor is now “growing” coffins by combining mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, with hemp fiber in a particular mold.
He’s created mushroom caskets.
They are biodegradable and return the body to nature in about a month and a half, whereas typical wooden caskets are made from trees that can take decades to mature and years to break down in the soil.
Death and funerals are often constrained by tradition. Perhaps it’s time to think “outside the box,” so to speak.
The vision of the environmentally-conscience deceased can now be achieved in death.
U.S. investor Shawn Harris noted that we come from a unique background and have our own ideas about how we’d like to be laid to rest. He believes a sizable fraction of people would choose something different. The caskets’ construction method has remained the same for the past fifty or one hundred years. There is progress everywhere else. Why not here?
Climate change and environmental preservation are somewhat important in some people’s daily lives, and Loop Biotech claims to have the solution for individuals who want to live in harmony with these values.
Bob Hendrikx, the 29-year-old creator who recently gave a presentation while wearing an “I Am Compost” T-shirt, said that he had done extensive research on nature, particularly mushrooms, and discovered that they are the world’s largest recyclers.
So he wondered why we shouldn’t participate in nature’s endless renewal cycle.
That’s when he thought of making a casket out of mushrooms. For funerals, moss can be draped over the inside of coffins.
Individuals who would instead be cremated also produce an urn that, once buried, will sprout a sapling to honor the deceased.
The inventor sounds like a pretty “fungi.”
