The next thing in sustainable funeral burials might just use an ingredient you have in your refrigerator

The next thing in sustainable funeral burials might just use an ingredient you have in your refrigerator

Dutch startup, Loop Biotech , focuses on creating coffins and urns made from mushrooms as a way to “collaborate with nature to give humanity a positive footprint,” the startup’s founders Bob Hendrikx and Lonneke Westhoff say.

“We all have different cultures and different ways of wanting to be buried in the world. But I do think there’s a lot of us, a huge percentage of us, that would like it differently,” US investor Shawn Harris told the Associated Press. “And it’s been very old school the same way for 50 or 100 years.”

Loop Biotech achieves this collaboration between nature and humans by combining the root structure of mushrooms – mycelium – with hemp fiber. The material takes about seven days to grow and only 45 days to decompose, becoming sustenance for the soil and plants surrounding the products. 

Right now, Loop Biotech make three items made from the mushroom-hemp hybrid: a “Living Cocoon” that is most like a traditional casket, a “ForestBed” which is an open-top casket covered in moss, and an urn for those choosing to be cremated. 

One study published by Chemosphere in 2022 found that cemeteries can be potentially harmful to the environment and people living within proximity of them–especially in urban areas. Traditional coffins can emit heavy metals that potentially contaminate soil and water, the study found. Even people choosing to cremate their loved ones runs the risk of releasing pollutants like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide during the process. 

Hendrikx and Westhoff said they were first fascinated by the power of the mushroom when learning that fungi can take a dead, fallen tree and recreate food sources for other species. This got them thinking about how coffins can make humans into food for the environment. It was vital for them to create a product that left the environment in good hands.

But these products are also economical. While a traditional casket can cost mourning families on average $2,500, according to the National Funeral Directors Association’s 2021 report , Loop Biotech’s urns or coffins can range from $200 to $1000. That price tag makes choosing to embrace a greener goodbye that much easier. 

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