World's first LIVING coffin: Eco-friendly casket is made from mushrooms - and the unusual method is already available in Britain

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

When it comes to funerals, two choices usually spring to mind.
Most people will opt for either a traditional ground burial in a wooden coffin or a cremation, which turns a person's remains into ashes.
But an alternative method is now available - and it's good news for nature-lovers.
A company has designed the world's first 'living coffin', made of natural materials which degrade in just 45 days once buried.
Dutch company Loop Biotech, who are behind the design, grow the 'Living Cocoon' from local mushroom species and upcycled hemp fibres in the space of a week.
They pad out the interior with a soft hemp bed and a pillow of moss, with the option to 'upgrade' to a bed of wool or soft cotton.
The coffin itself weighs 30kg and has a carrying capacity of up to 200kg, with six integrated handles for easy transportation.
The unusual burial method is already available in the UK, but it isn't cheap - the living coffin costs around £3,000.
Mark Ancker recently become the first person in the US to be buried in the eco-friendly casket.
'I have confidence that my dad will be fully part of the garden by winter,' Marsya Ancker told Fast Company. 'He didn't want to be embalmed, just to return to the Earth in a place that he loved.'
Her father always used to tell her that he wanted to be buried naked, under a tree in the woods.
When he passed away in June, her first call was to Loop Biotech and her father has since become the first person in the US to be buried in the 'Living Cocoon' - in a forest clearing on his property in Maine.
So far, the company has sold around 2,500 caskets in Europe - mostly in the Netherlands - but their coffins are also available to be shipped to the UK.
'Become part of nature's majestic loop of life and enrich the earth with the world's first living coffin,' their website reads.
The company said traditional wooden coffins 'not only require decades for trees to grow but also involve chopping, importing and processing them'.
Their 'Living Cocoon', however, can be fully grown in seven days using local raw materials, eliminating unnecessary transportation and the need for additional paint, glue, varnish or screws.
What is mycelium?
One of the key ingredients used to make the caskets is mycelium, the 'root' system of mushrooms.
It plays an important part in nutrient absorption and decomposition, and is known as one of nature's greatest recyclers.
As it breaks down, mycelium can help 'foster new life in the soil' by introducing a new carbon and energy source.
To make their caskets they mix mycelium - the 'root' system of mushrooms - with hemp, a plant often cultivated for its fibre. The mixture is poured into a mould and a coffin grows out of it over the space of a week.
The company has a 1,500 square-metre growing facility in Delft, Netherlands, with the capacity to grow 500 caskets at a time.
The living coffin costs around £3,000, and can also be used for cremations. Meanwhile their biodegradable urns cost roughly £300.
Meanwhile price of a wooden coffin can vary significantly depending on the type of wood, level of craftsmanship and whether it's for cremation or burial – but can cost as little as £270 and up to around £2,000 in the UK.
'Funerals can be more than endings - they can be beginnings,' Bob Hendrikx, founder of Loop Biotech, said.
'We created the Loop Living Cocoon to offer a way for humans to enrich nature after death. It's about leaving the world better than we found it.'
So-called 'green' burials, which have grown in popularity since the 1990s, are a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional funerals.
They focus on minimising environmental impact by using biodegradable coffins or shrouds and avoiding embalming, often taking place in designated natural burial grounds such as woodlands or meadows.
'We have helped many families in the UK with our sustainable funeral solutions,' a spokesman for Loop told MailOnline.
They said that last weekend Poppy's Funerals - a funeral director based in London - had a burial with one of their Living Cocoons.
The latest burial option follows an emerging trend for 'boil in a bag' funerals that dissolve bodies and flush them down the drain.
The method, which could soon become available in Britain after catching on around the world, is officially known as water cremation or alkaline hydrolysis.
It involves rapidly decomposing a corpse in water and alkaline chemicals under high temperatures, leaving only liquid and bones.
The liquid, known as 'effluent', can go down the drain with other wastewater and bones that can be ground to ash for the bereaved owner to take home.
Advocates say the method is better for the environment, but others believe it is an undignified way to dispose of the dead.
Promession, or cryomation - Involves using liquid nitrogen to chill the body to -196c, leaving it so brittle that it can be 'fragmented' on a vibrating mat. A magnet then removes metal objects such as fillings and artificial limbs, leaving a sterile powder - giving a whole new meaning to 'dust to dust'.
Aquamation - Sees bodies placed in silk bags and submerged in an alkaline solution that has been heated to 160C. Flesh, organs and bones all dissolve under the onslaught, leaving behind fluid and bones.
Ashes turned into diamonds - This technique utilises the fact that both human beings and diamonds are carbon-based. A body is cremated and the resulting ash is then purified at 3,000C before being further heated and pressurised into a diamond over a 16-week period.