Source: Start-up develops 'living coffin' Delft University of Technology (TU Delft, The Netherlands) student start-up Loop has developed a living coffin made from mycelium. The Living Cocoon helps the body to compost more efficiently, removes toxic substances and produces richer conditions in which to grow new trees and plants. After extensive testing, including in collaboration with two major funeral cooperatives CUVO (The Hague) and De Laatste Eer (Delft), this new form of burial is ready to be applied in practice. The first of the initial limited batch of ten Living Cocoons was already used for a funeral last week. . . . At one time, I used to speculate on how to bury my corpse to maximize the probability of converting to a fossil. A high mineral water table was my first thought, perhaps where there are gypsum deposits. There are also bog bodies, permafrost internment, and plaster casts from Pompeii. But after donation of a medical school, incineration makes sense. I'd never thought about buried in a mushroom. Bob Wilson
Washington State passed a law legalizing "human composting" in 2019. It became effective May 1 of this year: Washington becomes first state to legalize human composting
What are the normal coffin made of? I thought they are made of wood which would eventually decompose under the ground, but may take years? I for one prefer cremation and ash spread over the ocean. No coffin, no tombstone, no grave.
The wood is treated, stained, and sealed. Given enough time, it will rot, but then we pickle corpses. I wonder if the fungus coffin can deal with that..
Some are even metal or metal covered. Some are also covered with a concrete vault, protecting the casket for significant period. Fortunately, all of these are optional, even the pickling.
One company making such things and there may be others: Ecovative Design I had though to make a 3D printer emitting sawdust and fungal spores, but perhaps that is needlessly complex. == Wood decay is nitrogen limited. King Midas' wooden tomb rotted with the King's nitrogen Nitrogen cycling by wood decomposing soft-rot fungi in the “King Midas tomb,” Gordion, Turkey | PNAS This living cocoon would work the same way I suppose.
