When all focus of the human race is on reducing carbon footprint, how can you forget the carbon footprint of burial methods? Traditional burial methods are not environmentally friendly. Hence, you need to opt for green burial methods to reduce the ill effects of your final journey on the environment.
Gary Cubeta from Insurance for final expenses mentions that the mushroom suit for burial is the best gift you can give Mother Earth when you start your final journey. Here are few essential things you should know before buying a mushroom for the deceased loved one.
What Is a Mushroom Death Suit?
A mushroom death suit refers to organic cotton clothes which have mushroom spores sewn into the fabric. You can use this burial suit as alternative traditional burial methods that need a casket or rely on fossil fuels.
When the mushroom death suit is worn by the deceased, you can bury the body directly in the ground. Once buried, the mushroom death suit helps in the faster and safer decomposition of the body.
Why Is a Mushroom Death Suit Considered a Green Burial Method?
Gary Cubeta from Insurance for final expenses mentions that a mushroom suit for burial helps the environment in different ways. Here is the list
- The mushroom suit eliminates the need for a casket (any type) for burial. The wooden caskets used for burial are not environmentally friendly. Manufacturers of the coffins use large amounts of embalming fluids in the processing and finish of the caskets. When the body is buried in the ground, the wood starts to decay, releasing embalming fluids like methanol, glutaraldehyde, formaldehyde, and other solvents unsuitable for plants and animals.
- The metal caskets used in cremation pose a severe environmental and health hazard. When a body is buried in a metal casket, the metal starts to corrode and degrades into harmful toxins released into the ground. These harmful toxins may percolate into groundwater and surrounding soil.
- Traditional cremation methods that use fossil fuels or other methods use a lot of energy in the process. The burning of fossil fuels causes the release of harmful air pollutants like carbon monoxide and mercury fumes released by dental fillings.
The mushroom suit is environmentally friendly in every way. It is made of organic cotton that does not have any pesticides and traces of any chemicals. The mushroom suits decompose with the human body without releasing any harmful chemicals in the process.
The mushroom variety used in the biodegradable death suit is a friendly type that helps clean up the soil. For example, the death suit may contain spores of shiitake or oyster mushrooms categorized as edible types of mushrooms.
How Does Mushroom Suit Work?
The mushroom suit contains a biological mixture of fungi and microbes that help in the body’s decomposition. The human body contains pollutants in pesticides, heavy metals collected in the body throughout life on earth.
When your body starts decomposing, these pollutants trapped in the human body leach into the surrounding soil and groundwater, which is a kind of environmental and health hazard. The fungi and microbial colonies in the suit convert these toxins into simple substances that are not harmful to the environment.
The microbes and fungi also help in returning the building blocks (natural elements) to nature. For example, the human body comprises carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur. The mushrooms germinate on the shrouded body, which means the pollutants in the body do not come in direct contact with soil.
To sum up, the environmental toll of cremating the dead is something that needs serious thought. Hence, every person must consider green burial methods that will help the environment.
