Inverness funeral firm offering wool coffins

A SCOTTISH funeral director has embraced eco-friendly burials - by offering woollen coffins as an alternative to the traditional casket.

Staff at John Fraser & Son display one of the wool coffins. Picture: John Fraser/johnfraserandson.com

Inverness-based John Fraser & Son have claimed there is a growing demand for the environmentally-friendly caskets, which can support a person weighing up to 42 stone.

Available in white or brown, the coffins feature a personalised name plate, and a biodegradable waterproof base.

Made from 100 per cent pure new British wool, the caskets are supported by a strong recycled cardboard frame, and lined with cotton.

Speaking to The Herald, Vicki Fraser, who runs the business with her father Ian, said: “People are recycling and becoming much more eco-friendly and they want to go green with their funeral too.

“We have had lots of positive comments. They are very different to a traditional casket and people touch them and say how comforting they are.”

The eco-friendly coffin will be in good company, as an Italian firm have created the ‘Capsula Mundi Eco Coffin’, an egg-shaped biodegradable casket made of starch and plastic. The body is placed in the coffin in a fetal position and is planted like a bulb, with a tree planted on the surface to mark the grave as a living memorial.

The green casket is designed to try and ‘remove the taboo associated with death and burial’.