Woman laid to rest in coffin made from mushrooms in Australian first

A woman has been buried in a coffin made from mushrooms in New South Wales in an eco-friendly first for Australia. Carolyn, aged in her 70s, was laid to rest on Friday by friends and family at Springwood Cemetery in the Blue Mountains. The mushroom coffin, created by the Dutch firm Loop Biotech, was grown from mycelium – the root network of fungi – and hemp fibres.

The coffin is grown in mould in a climate-controlled room, taking just a week to fully form. Once buried, it takes about 45 days to become part of the soil. The process is akin to composting, as the body and coffin gently biodegrade and transform into nutrient-rich soil in far less time than a traditional wooden casket, which can take up to 50 years to break down.

Carolyn’s husband, David, said picking the mushroom coffin aligned with his wife’s values of giving back. It feels very true to who she was that even after her death, she can still do something for others while giving something back to nature,” he said. While Carolyn is the first to be buried in the coffin in Australia, Loop Biotech’s founder Bob Hendrikx said there had been thousands of others across Europe and the US.

In recent years options such as alkaline hydrolysis (a cremation-like process that uses water instead of fire), natural burials without embalming, and even shallow burials have become available. A natural burial uses a cardboard coffin with rope handles and will emit less than 10kg of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to PlanetMark analysis. Gould believes that as Australians are living longer and more people are dying from prolonged illnesses, more time is being spent thinking about how to depart and farewell loved ones.

So we’re seeing a huge rise in funeral planning.”