Earlier today, this caught my eye on a friend’s Facebook wall: an Italian design company has designed an organic burial pod that will turn the deceased person’s ruins into soil nutrients that will grow a tree. EXCUSE ME, WHAT. If I can’t attend Hogwarts, the next best thing would definitely be to transfigure myself into a tree upon my tragic parting from this earth.
Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel, the Italian designers behind the Capsula Mundi project, developed the coffin-replacing capsules to “promote the realization of green cemeteries” in and around Italy, rather than the rapidly filling cemeteries clogged with wooden coffins. The organic pod is instead made with starch plastic and the deceased would be placed inside the egg-shaped capsule in the fetal position, with the entire capsule being planted in the ground like a seed.
A tree, shrub, or seed is planted above the pod, allowing for the growth of memorial forests with drastically reduced waste and an impressive carbon footprint. Those who would choose to use the organic capsules can choose from 12 different types of trees or 12 different types of shrubs from three different regions of Europe – choices include more common trees like firs and oaks, as well as the more exotic willow salixes and horse hippocastanums. Though Italian law currently forbids such burials, the Capsula Mundi team has created a legislative group to try to update Italy’s burial laws that require wooden coffins lined with tin.
No word on how turning oneself into a tree will affect the pre-existing reincarnation plans already in store for my fellow Indians, but who cares, just turn me into a goddamn tree already.
Source: The Frisky
Original by Beejoli Shah
