FRANKLIN COUNTY, Pa. — Setas Mushrooms grows hundreds of pounds of mushrooms every week on a farm a few miles outside of Greencastle, Franklin County.
Here, Company Chairman Max Justice is making more than just edible fungus.
"Unfortunately, I’ve had to bury too many people in my life," Justice said. "My little sister is really what took me over the edge."
He chose cremation but was troubled when he found out how much energy it takes and how much exhaust it creates.
"That was really the idea of like, 'Wow, my little sister, the last thing she’s doing to the earth is being negative to the earth,'" Justice said.
Justice went looking for a greener solution to an age-old problem.
"We can’t keep burying them in steel coffins," he said. "We don’t have the space for anything, let alone to bury ten billion people."
He soon heard about an innovative solution from a company in the Netherlands. The company, Loop, creates biodegradable coffins from organic material.
Setas Mushrooms is the first to bring the technique to the U.S.
"The living material [is] Reishi fungus," he explained. Justice places the white substance known as Mycelium into bags of hemp. The mixture is poured into a mold and grows for four days. It’s then loaded into an oven and cooked for several hours.
"That white casing, then it dries, and it looks like a powdery substance all around it," Justice said. "It’s actually a really soft, luxurious feeling."
The company’s first attempt didn't look as good as Justice wanted it to, but it proved the concept works.
"We learned a lot," Justice said.
Setas was the first in the country to produce biodegradable coffins made completely from living materials designed to decompose a body.
The coffin can decompose a non-embalmed body in a little more than two years.
No more pushing daisies; these coffins push mushrooms.
"It started growing Reishi mushrooms," Justice said.
The coffins may be green, but customers won’t need much green to buy one.
"My most expensive coffin will be $995 and I want to get it even lower," he said.
Setas is refining the shape and preparing to build or buy a custom oven, hoping to ramp up production in the coming months.