By Modern Mortician Admin
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June 1, 2025
When the “mushroom shroud” first hit the funeral industry, I was intrigued, albeight briefly. A burial garment laced with spores that claimed to neutralize toxins and help decompose the human body faster? It sounded revolutionary. But I was closer to the mushroom suit than most. I was in the room, so to speak. I watched the marketing balloon inflate, and I saw who benefited. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t the consumer, and it certainly wasn’t the planet. That early mushroom shroud turned out to be more PR than practicality. It relied heavily on the public's love for nature-inspired innovation but had very little transparent science to back up its promises. I didn’t see any peer-reviewed data or detailed decomposition timelines. I saw branding. I saw $$$. I saw hashtags. I saw funerary folklore dressed up as eco-tech. So, yes, my involvement left me deeply skeptical of any product touting mycelium as a miracle solution for green burial. Then came Loop Biotech , with slick design and viral marketing. Their “living cocoon”, a coffin grown from mycelium, was being shared widely across social media, lauded as the future of sustainable burial. It looks futuristic, soft, and gentle...a decomposable cradle for the body. People in my inbox were tagging me constantly, excited by the idea. But once again, I had questions. Loop Biotech is based in the Netherlands. These mushroom coffins, as lovely as they are in theory, are being shipped across oceans to American consumers. That’s not sustainable—that’s greenwashing . When your "eco coffin" travels 3,000+ miles in a box, your carbon footprint isn’t shrinking. It’s just hidden under compostable packaging. It was after a respected casket supplier shared about offering Loop Biotech coffins, that I was then introduced to Setas Mushrooms in the comment section. Quietly working out of Pennsylvania , this small business is making mushroom coffins right here in the U.S. Their approach is humble, local, and genuinely rooted in regenerative design. Setas isn’t trying to dominate the market with buzzwords—they're cultivating solutions, literally. Their coffins are grown, not built, using mycelium and agricultural waste. They’ve focused on keeping things local and sustainable from beginning to end. No flashy campaigns, just a small American company doing the actual work. And that’s what frustrates me. The funeral industry has a habit—whether from laziness, ignorance, or greed—of looking overseas for flashy solutions while ignoring what’s growing in our own backyard. Why are we giving clicks and dollars to Dutch startups when there’s a team in Pennsylvania already offering better, more accessible alternatives? As someone who has spent years fighting for transparency, ethical pricing, and environmental responsibility in deathcare, I’ll say this plainly: If we’re going to go green, let’s go local first. Because compostable doesn’t mean ethical, and biodegradable doesn’t mean better—unless you’ve taken the time to know the source, the science, and the story behind the shroud.
