An Italian company is looking to take the green burial movement a step further. Capsula Mundi’s alternative to coffins will see you buried in a pod, in the fetal position, with your remains feeding a tree.
The idea is to turn a graveyard of tombstones into a memorial park full of trees.
“Our main goal concerning Capsula Mundi has been to sensitize people about the unbearable way the modern culture currently deals with death,” project founders Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel said.
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How it works is that a body is placed in fetal position and enclosed in a biodegradable burial capsule. Then it is planted in soil with a tree. What kind of tree you want your remains to nourish – birch, maple or eucalyptus – is up to you.
“This cultural and broad-based project suggests a different approach to death, natural and eco-friendly. Our purpose is to restore the idea of death to a natural cycle of life.”
According to the Natural Burial Association, there are four natural burial sites in Canada, with one in British Columbia, and three in Ontario.
Although burial in the form of a tree has not made its debut in Canada, natural burial by returning a body as naturally as possible to the earth is happening.