Nearly 100 people have opted for a burial in a ‘living coffin’ one year after the sustainable way of dealing with the dead was introduced.

The Living Cocoon was developed by Bob Hendrikx, together with researchers from Delft University of Technology and the Naturalis natural history museum, and has already been incorporated into the coffin collections offered by two Dutch funeral companies.

The moss-filled coffin is made of mycelium, the underground fungal network of mushrooms, and takes some 45 days to biodegrade. The coffin enables people to become one with nature again and to enrich the soil, instead of polluting it,’ Hendrikx told Dutchnews.nl at the time.

A factory where the coffins can be grown on a larger scale has now been opened to meet demand.

As the coffin desintegrates it removes toxins from the soil, a process Rotterdam local council may want to use to clean up polluted areas, Hendrikx told Nu.nl.

He also expects the price of the coffin, currently some €1,500, to come down as its popularity increases.

The concept is set to be exported abroad, Hendrikx said, including to Germany and the United States where the coffins will be made with local materials.