When it’s time to die, it’s the same old story. Pick a plot in a cemetery, pick a casket, or urn for your ashes. That’s really all the options you have, unless Capsula Mundi takes off and people become more accepting of it. Raoul Bretzel and Anna Citelli from Italy designed this unique green burial method. Rather than rotting in a box below ground or in a crypt above, you can actually be useful after you’re gone.
Your body is placed inside a biodegradable capsule. Your tree of choice is planted just above your fetally positioned body in the capsule. As you decompose, the released nutrients feed the tree, causing it to grow.
Starch plastic is what makes up the capsule, and it is biodegradable.
You and your tree are then planted.
Decomposition happens just like normal, the only difference being your body feeds a tree and makes it grow. Instead of rows of stones and memorials, there will be forests, made by the departed.
You can see the images above and below showing how it all works.
Unfortunately, this type of burial is actually illegal in Italy, so Capsula Mundi is still only an idea. Most of the U.S. has declared this illegal as well, although it is unclear why. Your relatives can still visit your tree and take care of it, just as they would visit your gravesite and care for the area around your stone.
This is a revolutionary idea. Check out the video below: