Eco-lovers in the UK can now be buried in the world's first 'living coffin' - which decomposes faster and is made out of mushrooms.
The coffins are grown out of pliable mycelium - a mat of fibres and upcycled hemp plants - rather than traditional wood.
The mycelium, which grows like thread, aids decomposition by breaking down biological matter - biograding within just 45 days. Mycelium is the root structure of mushrooms.
Made by Dutch company Loop Biotech, the coffins can be grown in just a week and "feed the earth with your very own nutrients".
Funeral director Poetic Endings in Forest Hill, southeast London, were the first in the UK to offer one of these unique coffins - officially starting to stock them last week.
Founder Louise Winter, 38, said: “Brexit made it slightly more complicated to get things into the country, so I am thrilled that we can finally offer them.
The coffins are grown out of pliable mycelium - a mat of fibres and upcycled hemp plants - rather than traditional wood.
The mycelium, which grows like thread, aids decomposition by breaking down biological matter - biograding within just 45 days. Mycelium is the root structure of mushrooms.
Made by Dutch company Loop Biotech, the coffins can be grown in just a week and "feed the earth with your very own nutrients".
Funeral director Poetic Endings in Forest Hill, southeast London, were the first in the UK to offer one of these unique coffins - officially starting to stock them last week.
Founder Louise Winter, 38, said: “Brexit made it slightly more complicated to get things into the country, so I am thrilled that we can finally offer them.
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FunTranscript
00:00My name is Louise Winter. I'm the founder of Poetic Endings, a modern funeral service based in London.
00:06Today we are showcasing this incredible new innovation called the Loop Living Coffin,
00:13which is a coffin made of mycelium, the root network out of which mushrooms grow.
00:18Mushrooms are the fruiting organisms that grow out of mycelium.
00:22Mycelium is such an incredible resource in nature.
00:27It's nature's biggest recycler, so anything that falls onto the forest floor, mycelium will recycle and return to the earth as nutrients.
00:35If it's left out of the soil, this coffin will stay as it is indefinitely.
00:41If it's planted in the soil, it will biodegrade within 45 days, return to the earth and nourish the soil around it.
00:49People are increasingly so aware of the environment and the impact that we have.
00:54They really want that to influence their funeral decisions as well.
00:58If people are environmentally conscious in life, there should be options that allow them to be environmentally conscious in death as well.
01:05It's £1,250, but other people may charge slightly differently.
01:10It only launched in the UK last week and already it has taken social media by storm.
01:16People just love the aesthetic of it. People who have experienced it love the feel of it.
01:22It's very different to anything that's currently out there.
01:25Mycelium also comes as a forest bed.
01:28This is the loop living coffin, which is more coffin-shaped and has a lid.
01:34The forest bed doesn't have a lid and the person would just be in a shroud.
01:38We also have an urn.
01:40If someone has been cremated, they can still make use of this material to return to nature.
01:45It can be put into the urn and then have a tree or some kind of plant on top.
01:50Then the mycelium will help the plant flourish.