Italian Designers Devise Burial Pods to Turn Human Remains into Trees

Italian designers have devised the concept of a biodegradable burial pod that will turn human remains into nutrients for a tree.

Designers Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel have developed 'Capsula Mundi' burial pod project, which involves encasing a corpse in an egg-shaped seed capsule and then burying it underground with trees on top.

As the body decomposes, the tree would gather nutrients from the decomposing pod and grow, 'New York Post' reported.

The pod is made with biodegradable starch plastic in which the body is put in a foetal position.

The starch is taken from seasonal plants such as potatoes and corn.

The tree is chosen when the person is alive, relatives and friends look after it when death occurs.

Planting different kinds of trees next to each other, the team said, would create a forest.

"A cemetery will no longer be full of tombstones and will become a sacred forest," the designers said.