{"id":127591,"date":"2023-06-05T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=127591"},"modified":"2023-05-31T12:15:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T10:15:11","slug":"sustainable-till-death-do-us-part-and-45-days-beyond-mushroom-coffin-a-last-best-wish-for-some","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/sustainable-till-death-do-us-part-and-45-days-beyond-mushroom-coffin-a-last-best-wish-for-some\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable till death do us part, and 45 days beyond; mushroom coffin a last best wish for some"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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For those seeking to live in the most sustainable way, there now is an afterlife too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Dutch intrepid inventor is now \u201cgrowing\u201d coffins by putting mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, together with hemp fiber in a special mold that, in a week, turns into what could basically be compared to the looks of an unpainted Egyptian sarcophagus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Director
Director Lonneke Westhoff, right, and founder Bob Hendrikx, left, of Dutch startup Loop Biotech display one of the cocoon-like coffins, grown from local mushrooms and up-cycled hemp fibres, designed to dissolve into the environment amid growing demand for more sustainable burial practices, in Delft, Netherlands, Monday, May 22, 2023. A Dutch intrepid inventor is now \u201cgrowing\u201d coffins by putting mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, together with hemp fiber in a special mold that, in a week, turns into what could basically be compared to the looks of an unpainted Egyptian sarcophagus. (AP Photo\/Aleksandar Furtula)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And while traditional wooden coffins come from trees that can take decades to grow and years to break down in the soil, the mushroom versions biodegrades and delivers the remains to nature in barely a month and a half. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our 21st century, when the individual spirit can increasingly thrive way beyond the strictures of yore, death and funerals are all so often still hemmed in by tradition that may fall far short of the vision of the deceased or their loved ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dutch
Dutch startup Loop Biotech displays cocoon-like coffins and urns, grown from local mushrooms and up-cycled hemp fibres, designed to dissolve into the environment amid growing demand for more sustainable burial practices. In one week it turns into what could basically be compared to the looks of an unpainted Egyptian sarcophagus.
(AP Photo\/Aleksandar Furtula)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all have different cultures and different ways of wanting to be buried in the world. But I do think there\u2019s a lot of us, a huge percentage of us, that would like it differently. And it\u2019s been very old school the same way for 50 or 100 years,\u201d said Shawn Harris, a U.S. investor in the Loop Biotech company that produces the coffins.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With climate consciousness and a special care of nature a focal point in ever more lives, Loop Biotech says it has the answer for those wanting to live the full circle of life \u2014 and then some \u2014 as close to what they always believed in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Hendrikx, the 29-year-old founder bedecked in a \u201cI am compost\u201d T-shirt at a recent presentation, said that he had researched nature a great deal \u201cespecially mushrooms. And I learned that they are the biggest recyclers on the planet. So I thought, hey, why can we not be part of the cycle of life? And then decided to grow a mushroom-based coffin.\u201d Moss can be draped within the coffins for the burial ceremonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for those preferring cremation, there is also an urn they grow which can be buried with a sapling sticking out. So when the urn is broken down, the ashes can help give life to the tree.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of: \u2018we die, we end up in the soil and that\u2019s it,\u2019 Now there is a new story : we can enrich life after death and you can continue to thrive as a new plant or tree,\u201d Hendrikx said in an interview. \u201cIt brings a new narrative in which we can be part of something bigger than ourselves.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coffins cost 995 euros (more than $1,000) each, and the price for an urn is 196.80 euros ($212). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put nature at the heart of such funerals, Loop Biotech is partnering with Natuurbegraven Nederland \u2014 Nature Burials Netherlands \u2014 which uses six special habitats were remains can be embedded in protected parks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Loop Biotech has a capacity to \u201cgrow\u201d 500 coffins or urns a month, and are shipping across Europe. Hendrikx said they have caught on in the Nordics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the Northern European countries where there is more consciousness about the environment and also where there\u2019s autumn,\u201d he said. \u201cSo they know and understand the mushroom, how it works, how it\u2019s part of the ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those seeking to live in the most sustainable way, there now is an afterlife too. A Dutch intrepid inventor is now \u201cgrowing\u201d coffins by putting mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, together with hemp fiber in a special mold that, in a week, turns into what could basically be compared to the looks of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Dutch startup Loop Biotech displays cocoon-like coffins and urns from local mushrooms and up-cycled hemp fibres, to dissolve into the environment and gives exemple for more sustainable burial practices","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[14907,12239,14123,17609,11323,20592],"supplier":[22216],"class_list":["post-127591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-coffins","tag-compostability","tag-mushrooms","tag-mycelium","tag-naturalfibers","tag-urns","supplier-loop-biotech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127591"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=127591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}