This 'Living' Mushroom Coffin Will Help Your Body Decompose Faster

Photo credit: Loop
Photo credit: Loop

From Popular Mechanics

  • A coffin made of fungal mycelium and moss can complement natural burial and enrich its surroundings.

  • Cemeteries are sites of pollution because of the materials we use in traditional burials.

  • Fungus in particular can absorb tough materials and toxins and process them into nutrients.


A new fungal coffin called the Living Cocoon offers people an option to help their remains biodegrade more naturally. Each coffin is grown from mycelium, the prematerial from which mushrooms are grown. The designers at Loop say their Living Cocoon reduces human body decomposition time from 10 years or more inside a manufactured metal and wood coffin to just 2 or 3 years.

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The idea of decomposition makes many people uneasy, and coffin design has reflected that for a long time. In places with swampier terrain, coffins are even surrounded by concrete vaults to prevent them from sinking. But the idea of someone’s remains staying pristine in any way, protected from the elements, is highly unrealistic.

Cremation is a popular alternative to burial, especially in places that have high demand for limited cemetery space, and the Mayo Clinic developed a landmark non-burning cremation method that consumes less energy.

But that’s not the only “green” way to go. Advocates for natural burial have argued for about 20 years that it makes ecological sense to let human bodies naturally decompose. As a result, more and more states are making laws to allow burial of human remains in a natural form intended to decompose. And as unpleasant as it may be to think about this idea, having legal ways to do natural burials benefits the public in multiple ways.

The State of Minnesota lists key statistics about the burial industry. Cemeteries across the U.S. each year bury:

  • 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid (includes formaldehyde)

  • 2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)

  • 30 million board feet of hardwoods (caskets)

  • 1,600,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)

  • 14,000 tons of steel (vaults)

Photo credit: Loop
Photo credit: Loop

This means heavy use of energy-dense resources, as well as materials that contaminate the groundwater. It also means each person buried in a cemetery must have a larger space for “only them” that lasts for decades. Instead, the Living Cocoon is compatible with both hybrid and natural burial grounds.

“The Living Cocoon enables people to become one with nature again and to enrich the soil, instead of polluting it,” Loop's designer Bob Hendrikx tells Dutch News. He worked with Delft University and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, both also in the Netherlands, on the project.

Why mycelium and mushrooms in particular? While the naturally decomposing human body is not pollutant to the extent that formaldehyde or manufactured varnish might be, it does release some toxic material. Different fungi absorb and extract nutrients from almost everything, including these toxins. And fungus in general can be better at breaking down the tougher materials that are part of the human body.

The Living Cocoon is slow to make, because it must be grown from living mycelium and then dried. For now, Dutch News says, it’s available from two funeral companies in the Netherlands only. But it’s not the first fungus-based burial concept, and it likely won’t be the last. Loop hopes to grow and offer its products in many more places.

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