Making End Of Life Recyclable?

David Trammel's picture

I'd buy one and use it.

"Dutch Man Invents Coffin That Turns Bodies Into Mushrooms: ‘We are nutrients, not waste’"

Dubbed the ‘Living Cocoon,’ the coffin gives an option for a more ecologically conscious generation who may want to leave a positive impact on the planet after they’ve gone. Created by 26-year-old Bob Hendrikx, a bio-designer from the University of Delft, the Living Cocoon is made by growing mycelium around a coffin-shaped frame. Mycelium is the part of the mushroom we can’t see—the underground fibrous network that makes up most of the lifeform. Hendrikx also referred to it as “nature’s recycler,” as mycelium has been shown by mushroom scientists, called mycologists, to be able to process things which other agents of decomposition can’t tackle.

“Mycelium is constantly looking for waste products–oil, plastic, metals, other pollutants–and converting them into nutrients for the environment,” Hendrikx said, according to the Guardian. “This coffin means we actually feed the earth with our bodies. We are nutrients, not waste.”

My mother came from a tiny village in Bavaria. Everyone was buried in the church cemetery, small and landlocked.

They reused the grave sites.

How did they do this?

By burying the bodies in winding sheets. A few generations later, the deceased no longer lived in memory, the site had emptied itself naturally, and the grave was reused.

It worked. Everyone was used to it. Death was the natural end of life and wasn't considered the enemy to be fought at all costs until you *failed* by dying.