<p>A Dutch start-up has created a biodegradable "living coffin" made of a fungus, instead of wood, which it says can convert a decomposing human body into key nutrients for plants.</p>.<p>The company, Loop, says its casket is made of mycelium, the underground root structure of mushrooms, and filled with a bed of moss to stimulate decomposition.</p>.<p>"Mycelium is nature's biggest recycler", Bob Hendrikx, the creator of the living coffin told Reuters.</p>.<p>"It's continuously looking for food and transforming it into plant nutrition."</p>.<p>Mycelium also devours toxins and turns them into nutrients.</p>.<p>"It's used in Chernobyl to clean up the soil there from the nuclear disaster", Hendrikx said.</p>.<p>"And the same thing happens in our burial places, because the soil is super polluted there and mycelium really likes metals, oils and microplastics."</p>.<p>The coffin is grown like a plant within the space of a week at the company's lab at the Technical University of Delft by mixing mycelium with wood chips in the mould of a coffin.</p>.<p>After the mycelium has grown through the wood chips, the coffin is dried and has enough strength to carry a weight of up to 200 kilograms (440 lb).</p>.<p>Once buried, interaction with groundwater will dissolve the coffin within 30 to 45 days. Decomposition of the body is estimated to take only 2 to 3 years, instead of the 10 to 20 years it takes with traditional coffins.</p>.<p>Loop has so far grown and sold 10 living coffins, Hendrikx said, for 1,500 euros ($1,761) a piece.</p>.<p>"When the living coffin is in the ground you can even water it, add seeds and you can decide what tree you want to become." ($1 = 0.8518 euros)</p>
<p>A Dutch start-up has created a biodegradable "living coffin" made of a fungus, instead of wood, which it says can convert a decomposing human body into key nutrients for plants.</p>.<p>The company, Loop, says its casket is made of mycelium, the underground root structure of mushrooms, and filled with a bed of moss to stimulate decomposition.</p>.<p>"Mycelium is nature's biggest recycler", Bob Hendrikx, the creator of the living coffin told Reuters.</p>.<p>"It's continuously looking for food and transforming it into plant nutrition."</p>.<p>Mycelium also devours toxins and turns them into nutrients.</p>.<p>"It's used in Chernobyl to clean up the soil there from the nuclear disaster", Hendrikx said.</p>.<p>"And the same thing happens in our burial places, because the soil is super polluted there and mycelium really likes metals, oils and microplastics."</p>.<p>The coffin is grown like a plant within the space of a week at the company's lab at the Technical University of Delft by mixing mycelium with wood chips in the mould of a coffin.</p>.<p>After the mycelium has grown through the wood chips, the coffin is dried and has enough strength to carry a weight of up to 200 kilograms (440 lb).</p>.<p>Once buried, interaction with groundwater will dissolve the coffin within 30 to 45 days. Decomposition of the body is estimated to take only 2 to 3 years, instead of the 10 to 20 years it takes with traditional coffins.</p>.<p>Loop has so far grown and sold 10 living coffins, Hendrikx said, for 1,500 euros ($1,761) a piece.</p>.<p>"When the living coffin is in the ground you can even water it, add seeds and you can decide what tree you want to become." ($1 = 0.8518 euros)</p>