Different civilisations have developed different ways of dealing with their dead. The people of Tibet leave their bodies on mountain tops for vultures to clear away, the Egyptians and others disemboweled them and preserved them, modern Europeans pop them in expensively crafted wooden boxes and bury them in fields.
If you think about it, not a lot changes in the world of corpse disposal, it’s a bit of a touchy subject, understandably. Of course, there are manuals on how to dispose of victims’ bodies and there are a certain sets of scientists trying to reanimate the dead, but in general people stick to tradition.
This may be set to change. The Capsula Mundi, the brain child of Italian designers Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel is a new, more environmentally sound approach. A standard box burial takes up a lot of space and, let’s face it, is a waste of perfectly good wood. A cremation is more space efficient but produces toxic waste. The Capsula Mundi is a much smarter plan. So what does it entail?
Well, your body is tucked up in the foetal position inside a biodegradable egg. On top of you they place a tree. As you rot away the nutrients in your body nourish and support the sapling. Because you’re tucked up in a ball you take up less space, there’s no harmful chemicals produced and a brand new tree will be grown. Win, win.
A lot of people (who are way to superstitious) won’t like the idea of this, but it really is a water-tight, sensible plan. It certainly makes more sense than periodically digging up your relatives, dressing them in suits and parading them around town any way. People can be a little odd can’t they?
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