London funeral firm creates 'living' coffins

A London funeral firm has created biodegradable 'living coffins'.

Transcript

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.