Advertisement
The idea is to place a body in a fetal position, enclose it in a biodegradable burial capsule which, in time, will turn a person’s remains into nutrients for a tree planted directly up above it.
The project is the brainchild of Italian designers Raoul Bretzel and Anna Citelli and aims to encourage the idea of using a grave to give life to a new tree.
What is Capsula Mundi?
Related Articles
Advertisement
How does it work?
The body or ashes are buried inside the biodegradable plastic shell. The shell breaks down after being buried and the remains inside give the surrounding soil nutrients, and a sapling planted above the body begins to take root.
There are also Bio Urn, which is the world’s first biodegradable urn that’s also customizable. The seed is placed in an urn which stores ashes below a soil mix. The embedded seed takes nourishment from the ashes as it grows into a tree.
People can pick their own seeds, maple, beech, gingko, ash, or pine.
Source: Capsula Mundi
This practice of turning dead bodies into a tree is sustainable and zero waste. As of last year, it is possible to buy different brands of organic burial pods and other various zero-waste burial options.
This not only is a sustainable practice but also a way of making sure we are helping the climate change which is rapidly degrading the earth’s atmosphere and instead of a graveyard, people would visit a woodland to remember their loved ones.
Fact: Luke Perry, the Riverdale actor who died in 2019, chose to be buried in an eco-friendly mushroom suit. It is a zero-waste way of becoming one with nature and letting the body decay how it was meant to be.
Organic pods are easily available online along with the mushroom suit. Organic pods cost $457 whereas the mushroom suit costs $1500.
In India, organic pods have made their way through an initiative called Last Ripple, which turns pets, who have passed away, into living, breathing plants.