Peace pods a biodegradable coffin alternative | ABC Australia

Sculptor Mea Souris has spent years refining her "peace pods", an environmentally friendly caskets for burial.

The former marriage and funeral celebrant said people were becoming more conscious of the environment.

Produced by:

Sarah Abbott

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Transcript:

I've been making coffins over about three decades now.

Developing the design and refining it and failing

and abandoning, and finally coming up with something

that I'm very happy with.

For a very long time, I've been a celebrant, which involves doing a number of funeral ceremonies.

And in that process, I felt that sometimes there was something missing

more than the person who was departing.

And part of it was the coffin.

The coffin cringe was always a problem for me, that the moment you looked at it, there was Shiver.

A shiver that told the whole story without any feeling or, or reference to family involvement. So having been a sculptor and designer through most of my life,

and have been a celebrant, for a long part of it.

There was a point at which those two issues converged into feeling

that it was worthwhile to design an alternative coffin.

I actually feel that I've modified it now to a point where it's good.

It's strong and light. It's logistically very workable and environmentally very friendly. It can also be personalized very readily.

It can be decorated, graffiti, or painted in any way to reflect the life of the person who's departed.

These are the ways of actually starting the conversation within the family that somebody will be leaving soon

or somebody has recently departed.

And there begins an understanding and an acceptance of what's taking place.

In our community right now, this absolute growing interest in ways in which people can become more involved in the process

and the celebration of the life of their friends and family when they die.

We've handed over in the past the entire process to the experts who've been the funeral directors, but it's changing a great deal.

And people are now far more aware of their ability to make their own decisions about the way that they leave the planet.

These decisions about the coffin that they use the burial ground, and the entire procedure.

can be made by people in a far more meaningful way than they ever have before in our community.

I think the first pod that I made will be the one I leave the planet in.

It's the original pod, which I made by myself and used for the launch of the pods.

I think I was blessed by 60 women in different languages for providing an alternative to what's available and it's absolutely my size.