A woman in her 70s has become the first person in Australia to be buried in a coffin grown from mushrooms, in a bid to reduce the environmental impact of her funeral. Carolyn was laid to rest on Friday at Springwood Cemetery in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, using a casket made by Dutch firm Loop Biotech from mycelium (fungal root networks) and hemp fibres, which her husband David said reflected her lifelong instinct to help others and give back to nature.

The coffin is grown in a mould inside a climate-controlled room over about a week, weighs roughly 30kg, and breaks down within 45 days of burial, compared with up to 50 years for a traditional wooden casket, enriching the soil as it decomposes. Loop Biotech's founder said thousands of the coffins have already been used across Europe and the US, and cultural anthropologist Dr Hannah Gould linked the growing interest in such "eco-deaths" to declining religiosity and a rising trend of Australians planning funerals differently after experiencing unsatisfactory ones for family members. The article also notes that while about 70% of Australians opt for cremation, which emits roughly 125kg of CO2 per body, alternatives such as alkaline hydrolysis and cardboard natural burials (emitting under 10kg of CO2 equivalent) are becoming more available.