Bob Hendrikx: “We’re opening the door to an economy that’s literally alive”

How did you start making living coffins?

“For my graduation project at the Technical University of Delft, I explored how we can create a new generation of products with a positive footprint. Not just ‘less bad’, but genuinely regenerative. I began researching which organisms in nature could support that idea, and that’s how I found mycelium – the underground fungal network.

I started with the organism itself: what role does mycelium play in the soil? What does it want, how does it behave in its natural environment? Only then did I ask: what could we, as humans, do with it? Rather than the other way around, as we so often tend to.

I discovered that mycelium is nature’s ultimate recycler – it breaks down dead organic material and transforms it into nutrients that enrich the soil, feeding the trees and plants that grow in it. This made me wonder: what types of products do we actually put into the ground? That’s how we arrived at coffins.”

Tell us more about your living coffins.

“Nature is at the heart of everything we do. We have a growing facility in the Netherlands for our coffins – we deliberately avoid calling it a factory, because in a factory, organisms die, whereas with us, the materials come to life.

There, we shape a mould from organic hemp in the form of a coffin. We introduce our preferred mushroom species, and over the course of seven days – under carefully controlled conditions of humidity and oxygen – the mycelium grows into the shape of a coffin. It essentially consumes the hemp, and whilst it does that, it grows and binds the material into a whole. After a week, it’s fully formed: a coffin made of living fungi.

Once in the soil, the process continues: the coffin completely decomposes within 45 days. That also means the body comes into contact with the earth much quicker – there’s no barrier like a wooden coffin, which can take ten to thirty years to break down. The nutrients from the body therefore are able to return to the soil almost immediately.”

If you think about it, it’s rather strange that we burn or bury the nutrients in our bodies in a way that’s of no use to the soil.

“Yes, I always say: you wouldn’t burn a bag of compost, would you? But that’s essentially what we’re doing with our bodies – over and over again. On top of that, the conventional funeral industry is extremely polluting. A cremation produces around 208 kilos of CO2. A burial emits about 95 kilos, but every time we bury someone, a tree has to die in order to produce the coffin. And we’re also polluting the soil with what we put into it: chemical coatings on coffins or synthetic linings – all of that ends up in the ground.

What’s tricky is that many people believe certain alternatives are fine – like untreated wooden coffins or wicker baskets. These do break down, but it often takes years. Plus, wood comes from trees – why let an organism grow for thirty years only to use it for one day? In addition, wood has to be dried before it can be processed, which is usually done by applying intense heat. A lot of wood also comes from Asia too, adding to its carbon footprint. People often think wood is sustainable, but that’s not always true – especially when it’s transported far and used only briefly.”

And your coffins also improve the soil.

“Exactly. We’re really operate on the other end of the spectrum. Mycelium is a kind of superhero of soil life: it can clean up polluted land whilst feeding the ecosystem. So after death, you can still do something good – your final footprint can be a positive one.”

Where does your drive to restore nature come from?

“I grew up in Eindhoven with three older brothers. I had a lovely childhood, though as the youngest, I wasn’t always taken seriously. I was also deeply sensitive to inequality, which made me aware from an early age of how badly we treat the planet. During camping trips to the mountains of Austria and Italy, I saw how nature – like me at the time – was often overlooked. It struck a chord, and I felt a strong urge to stand up for the natural world, to help protect the beauty I loved to play in and was endlessly fascinated by.

That desire not just to be ‘less bad’ but to truly do something good, ultimately is the reason why I started Loop Biotech. Because, and this might sound harsh: it’s not a problem if there are more tigers or elephants in the world. But if more people are added, that is currently a problem for the planet. It shows that something fundamentally is wrong.” 

Now that 2,500 people have been buried in your living coffins, how has the funeral industry responded?

“The sector we work in is pretty conservative. Funeral directors have been using the same products for years – often wooden coffins sourced from China for fifty euros and sold for about a thousand. So the incentive to try something new is low… Cemeteries often find it a bit daunting as well. But once you explain the positive effects of mycelium on the soil, they tend to get enthusiastic. Still, it’s hard to convince people of something they’re not familiar with. 

On the other hand, the public’s response has been incredibly positive. From the start, we’ve had media attention from all over the world. It helps that it’s something everyone can understand. You don’t need to be a technical expert: everyone knows what a coffin is, and everyone gets that mycelium breaks down and feeds the soil. So we receive a lot of warm responses.

That said, if you run a company, you also need to sell products. We’re incredibly proud that over 2,500 people in Europe have been buried in our living coffins. That’s an honour. At the same time, we want to become profitable and show that within a capitalist system, you can enrich nature. That a regenerative model works not only ecologically, but also economically. It’s what we’re working on right now.”

What’s your strategy?

“We are and will forever remain a niche product – we don’t expect everyone to be buried this way. But if we can capture just one per cent of the market in several countries, we’ll be more than profitable. That’s our plan for the coming years: to expand across multiple nations simultaneously. For this purpose, we’ve raised 4.5 million euros. This allows us to grow our production facility in the Netherlands and open new sites abroad. Our coffins are now approved across Northern Europe, both for traditional and natural burials – so they can be used in any cemetery.

In addition, how beautiful would it be to work locally? A coffin in Germany could have a different colour or texture to the one in the Netherlands, because we’d use local materials and a mycelium species suited to the local soil. That makes the whole process even more regenerative.”

Has your perspective on death – and life – changed through this work?

“Definitely. Many people in the West see life as something linear, with a beginning and an end. But if you look at nature, you see something completely different – life is cyclical. Nutrients return to the soil and become the foundation for new life. That’s the story we’re trying to share too: life isn’t a straight line, it’s a loop. 

Once I realised this, much of my resistance to death faded away. At first, I found the funeral world quite daunting – I thought: what if I get depressed from constantly dealing with death? That fear shows up in society too: we prefer to keep death at a distance. Just look at how we maintain parks: dead leaves are removed immediately, a tree with a crack is pre-emptively felled. Anything to do with death is kept out of sight.

But what I’ve found is that the more I came into contact with death, the greater my gratitude for life became. Realising it’s finite makes me enjoy it more. And we receive so much appreciation for what we do. We hear stories from people who’ve lost a loved one – young, old, sometimes children – and for whom our living coffins are the only option that feels right. They were able to say goodbye in a meaningful way and are deeply grateful. This gives a lot of meaning in return.”

On a completely different note: if we bury ourselves in mycelium coffins, do we even need cemeteries?

“That’s another shift we want to instigate. Especially in a country like the Netherlands, where land is scarce and many soils are degraded, there are plenty of places the soil could use a helping hand. How beautiful would it be if we buried people in living coffins in those very places – and planted a tree with each burial? That way, you restore life, both underground and above, and help regenerate impoverished or polluted areas.”

Are there plans to apply your technology in other sectors?

“For us, it’s essential that the organism – in this case, the mycelium – stays alive. Applications where the material is baked, like in packaging or insulation, therefore don’t interest us.

So for the future, we’re looking for new living organisms to collaborate with, and ways to integrate them into daily life whilst fully honouring their natural behaviour. Think: living bins in your kitchen that digest your waste, so you don’t have to take it outside. Or glowing streetlights, living houses… Objects that aren’t just functional, but actively contribute to their surroundings.

At first, people thought we were mad with our mushroom coffin. But it works – and you can even make money with it. I believe this is just the beginning. We’re opening the door to an economy that is literally alive. A system not based on depletion, but on regeneration.”

Want to know more? Watch the video interview with Bob Hendrikx and Lonneke Westhoff.

Together with The Green Times and Impact Hub Amsterdam, we’re creating a series of stories about regenerative entrepreneurs who show how we can move towards an ecology economy – a system that puts life at its centre. Don’t want to miss the next one? Sign up for our newsletter and receive it straight in your inbox.