New Mushroom Coffins Turn Human Remains Into Nutrients for the Earth

The Loop ForestBed offers a burial container made of hemp fiber and mushrooms
Photo Credit: Loop-biotech

Green burials and natural burial products have become more and more popular in recent years. In 2018, 54% of Americans reported that they were considering some kind of green burial, and 72% of cemeteries reported an increased demand for such services. Now, a Dutch startup company has joined the trend, offering a unique option: mushroom coffins.

The company, Loop Biotech, has developed a way to “grow” coffins and urns in just seven days by combining living mushroom mycelium with a hemp root structure. The resulting burial vessels are white, simple, and surprisingly elegant. And after burial, these coffins and urns can decompose in 45 days, offering potential benefits to the ecosystem. As the mycelium coffin is absorbed back into the soil, it also enriches the surrounding soil and helps the human body within the container fully decompose within two to three years. When a body is buried in a traditional coffin, this process can take a decade or more. 

The Loop EarthRise is an urn made of mushroom mycelium and hemp fiber, with a tree on top.
Photo Credit: : Loop-biotech

  The company’s founder, Bob Hendrikx, was inspired after reflecting on mushrooms’ power to decompose and recycle materials into organic waste, and decided to tap into this to help return human bodies to the earth in a more eco-friendly way. Speaking to AP News, Hendrikx shared, “Instead of: ‘we die, we end up in the soil and that’s it,’ now there is a new story: We can enrich life after death and you can continue to thrive as a new plant or tree … It brings a new narrative in which we can be part of something bigger than ourselves.” Hendrikx told USA Today that these mushroom coffins and urns help human remains become food sources for the earth, saying that “The material, the mycelium, if you just put it in the soil, it’s a soil enhancer that increases biodiversity. Combining a product that is good for the soil and something to bury people in is a win-win.”

The Loop Cocoon resembles a traditional coffin but degrades in 45 days
Credit: : Loop-biotech

Loop Biotech currently offers three different burial container possibilities: Loop LivingCocoon, shaped like a more traditional coffin, Loop EarthRise, an urn with a living tree on top, and Loop ForestBed, a flat funeral carrier with moss lining. The price for the EarthRise urn runs less than $300, while the LivingCocoon costs more than $1,000. While Loop products are currently only available in European countries, they are working out how to branch into the American market. So, the next green burial you attend might just be aided by some friendly fungus.