Worldwide Ecocasket Sdn Bhd co-founders, Jonn Ong and Jim Loo, say their current focus is on business-to-business sales, with Xiao En one of their major customers.

PETALING JAYA:

Not long before Poo Ai Lim, 92, passed away in August last year, she made a somewhat unusual request. She wanted to be cremated in a cream-coloured casket made of recycled cardboard.

Poo had come to know of cardboard caskets during a conversation with her daughter, KC Han, and immediately expressed her liking for it.

“She said it was a very good idea.

“She was a very environmentally friendly person. In fact, the whole family is. She would bring a reusable bag everywhere she went,” Han told FMT.

Poo was not alone in choosing the “greener way to go”.

According to Canada-based Emergen Research, a green funeral is characterised by the use of biodegradable and environmentally friendly materials, including replacing wood and metal caskets with those made from recycled cardboard.

The research centre found that, in 2021, the global market size for green funerals was valued at US$571.54 million, with the Asia Pacific region accounting for the largest share.

It said the demand for green funerals is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 8.7% as new technologies and innovations emerge.

In 2022, the National Funeral Directors Association in the US also revealed that around 60.5% of Americans, up from 55.7% the previous year, expressed interest in exploring green funeral options to save costs and reduce the environmental impact of these services.

Andrew Sebastian, CEO of Ecotourism and Conservation Society Malaysia, supports the emerging trend of cardboard caskets, saying it would help minimise the carbon footprint one leaves behind after death.

“All of us owe a duty to mother nature to be as ecologically friendly as possible. This includes after we pass on,” he said.

Aside from using cardboard caskets, Sebastian suggested spreading seeds on top of coffins to allow trees to grow on burial grounds, a way of giving life to another form as one comes to an end.

These are ISO-certified, industrial-grade cardboards when stacked together form hardwood-like planks, which will later be compressed and used to produce an eco-casket.

Safer, lighter, biodegradable

Worldwide Ecocasket Sdn Bhd CEO Jonn Ong told FMT the process of manufacturing such environmentally friendly caskets, made primarily with industrial-grade recycled paper, plywood and fabric, requires much less energy compared to their wooden and metal counterparts.

He said another advantage eco caskets had over traditional ones was the absence of formaldehyde, a pungent carcinogenic toxin that is not only used as an embalming fluid but also found in wood caskets, specifically those made of medium-density fibreboard (MDF).

“Research has shown that MDF caskets take twice as long to burn during cremation, and the emission of pollutants is double that of eco caskets,” Ong said, adding that their caskets are at least 50% lighter than conventional ones but can withstand weight of up to 280kg.

For now, he said, most of their caskets are made for cremation, as preferred by their Chinese customers. They are also completely biodegradable if buried.

Ong said he is optimistic about the market growth of green funerals in Malaysia, as more young adults are making it a point to adopt sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.

“We started this business in 2020 because we were inspired by Japan, which adopted the concept of eco caskets decades ago. Malaysia is finally catching on with this due to the various green initiatives the government is pushing,” he said.

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Cardboard caskets gain popularity as world goes greener

Eco casket manufacturer Jonn Ong says Malaysia has been slow to accept the concept of cardboard caskets, but he is confident that this will change.