First-Ever Mushroom Casket Burial in North America Could Signal Cultural Shift Toward More Planet-Friendly Traditions

With all the chemicals, wood and land used in traditional burials, they can be detrimental to the environment.

Now, a company from the Netherlands has developed a casket made entirely of mycelium — the network of thread-like structures that make up mushroom roots — that biodegrades within 45 days of burial. The innovative Loop Living Cocoon mushroom casket is grown in one week and enriches the soil while nourishing new plant life.

Loop Biotech

Recently the first burial using a mushroom casket took place in North America, on a peaceful hillside in rural Maine, a press release from Loop Biotech said.

“My father always told me that he wanted to be buried in the woods on the property that he loved so much,” said Marsya Ancker, who chose a mushroom casket for the burial of her father Mark C. Ancker. “He wanted his final resting place to nourish the land and plants he cherished.”

Since 2021, Netherlands-based Loop Biotech has facilitated more than 2,500 burials using mushroom caskets all over Europe, but the service in Maine was a first for North America.

“Green burial, which gained renewed attention in the 1990s, replaces traditional embalming chemicals, hardwood caskets, and synthetic linings with biodegradable materials that enable natural decomposition,” Loop Biotech said in the press release.

Founded in 2005, the nonprofit Green Burial Council has seen marked growth in green burials, documenting a 72 percent increase in cemeteries seeking sustainable end-of-life options.

“Since 2005, the Green Burial Council has certified over 250 providers and recorded 400+ green cemeteries across the U.S. and Canada: a clear sign of growing demand for environmentally conscious end-of-life choices,” said Sam Perry, president of the Green Burial Council. “More and more people are seeking meaningful alternatives that honor both their loved ones and the planet.”

Loop Biotech

According to the Green Burial Council, conventional burials in the United States use approximately 20 million board feet of wood, 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluid and 1.6 million tons of concrete reinforced with steel each year.

The Global Green Burial Alliance was founded in 2022 and is an entirely free, volunteer-run networking organization. It creates educational opportunities while connecting consumers with providers and encouraging families to reclaim their voice in how their loved ones are laid to rest.

“Funerals can be more than endings: they can be beginnings,” said Bob Hendrikx, Loop Biotech’s founder. “We created the Loop Living CocoonTM to offer a way for humans to enrich nature after death. It’s about leaving the world better than we found it.”

Loop Biotech is part of a rising tide of innovations intended to reimagine the burial process while reversing the environmental harm of the funeral industry.

The Ancker Family conducted their service on private land located in Industry, Maine. While they kept the ceremony small, they hope that by sharing their story it might be an inspiration to others contemplating ways of saying goodbye that are more conscious and Earth-friendly.

“Death is the only guarantee in life; it is how we choose to embrace death that paints the landscape for generations to come. To embrace the living with our death becomes the final act of kindness we can bestow upon our planet,” said Ed Bixby, founder of Global Green Burial Alliance.