Hong Kong’s latest COVID-19 outbreak has cost about 6,000 lives this year and the territory is now running out of coffins.
Authorities have scrambled to order more, with the government saying that 1,200 coffins had reached the territory last week, with more to come.
Space constraints make cremation a common burial practice in the densely populated territory, and the coffins typically are wood or wood substitutes.
Photo: AP
To answer the shortage of them due to the COVID-19 toll, some companies are offering alternatives such as an environmentally friendly cardboard coffin.
LifeArt Asia has cardboard coffins made of recycled wood fiber that can be customized with designs on the exterior.
In its factory in Aberdeen, a southern district of Hong Kong, up to 50 coffins can be produced a day.
LifeArt Asia chief executive officer Wilson Tong said that there is still some resistance to using caskets made of cardboard.
People feel that “it’s a little bit shameful to use so-called paper caskets,” Tong said. “They feel that this is not very respectful to their loved ones.”
However, the company has designs that can reflect religion or hobbies, and the coffin can even have a personalized color, he said.
“So it gives more than enough sufficient choices to the people, and so that they can customize the funeral and offer a more pleasant farewell without the fear of death,” he said.
The company says that its cardboard coffins, when burned during the cremation, emit 87 percent less greenhouse gas compared with those made of wood or wood substitutes.
Each LifeArt coffin weights about 10.5kg and can carry a body that weights up to 200kg.
Hong Kong has reported about 200 COVID-19 deaths daily on average over the past week. The surge has put a strain on mortuaries and refrigerated containers are being used to temporarily store bodies.
Amid the rising toll, non-profit Forget Thee Not, which advises people on their choices for last rites, bought 300 cardboard coffins and caskets to either send to hospitals or give to families who need them.
“We have been promoting environmentally friendly and personalized funerals,” said Albert Ko (高永賢), a board director at Forget Me Not. “Now we see that Hong Kong needs more coffins. There are not enough coffins for the bodies in our hospitals.”
Some of the elderly people who discussed their last rites with the organization have been open-minded and welcoming to the idea of environmentally friendly coffins,” he said.
“We hope to take this opportunity to contribute as well as promote eco-coffins,” he said.
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