2023-05-30 21:44:28
A Dutch startup called Loop Biotech has developed a coffin made from mushrooms that can degrade in less than two months, offering an eco-friendly alternative to burial.
According to the company, the coffin’s raw material is mycelium, a set of tangled filaments found at the root of mushrooms, which is combined with hemp fiber and secret ingredients to form a mass.
Then the mixture is poured into a special mold, which, after a week, turns into a structure that basically looks like a human-scale silkworm cocoon. Finally, the coffin is lined with a layer of moss.
Compared to a traditional wooden coffin, which can weigh from 80 kg to 300 kg, the “Loop Living Cocoon” is light and airy, not exceeding 66 kg.
Depending on the conditions, an ordinary coffin takes tens of years to decompose in nature. The mushroom version breaks down in six weeks – while also working to decompose the body, speeding up the process by which nature can absorb cadaveric nutrients.
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In addition to the coffins, which cost around US$1,000 (just over R$5,000), the company also offers urns made of the same material to store cremated ashes, for an average price of US$212 (something around R$1,070).
“Instead of: ‘we die, we end up in the ground and that’s it,’ now there’s a new story: we can enrich the afterlife and continue to thrive like a new plant or tree,” company founder Bob Hendrikx told Associated Press. “It brings a new narrative where we can be a part of something bigger than ourselves.”
For him, Loop Biotech’s caskets and urns are “adding value instead of polluting the soil”.
Currently, the company has the capacity to develop 500 caskets or urns per month, which are distributed throughout Europe. To date, according to Hendrikx, around 100 burials have been made with the “Living Cocoon”, in Holland, Germany and Belgium.
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