Eco coffins and furniture a great discovery

Greening up my own life, daily on the how-to-green search, I find amazing stuff. Greener cooking, lighting, toilet paper, cosmetics, body products, cleaning stuff, nappies, even sanitaryware, clothes, shoes, you name it.

I read a myriad of great green blogs and newsletters and trace international green news daily. So my tank is continually full of green petrol, luring me towards innovative ways of sourcing and creating sustainable solutions locally.

Sometimes I go green with envy when I find cool products available overseas. Like the eco pod - a gentle, pod-shaped coffin into which you fit snugly for your final return to Mother Earth. Now it is all nigh possible here.

I discovered a local business that manufactures eco boards from recycled cardboard, from which an Australian makes eco coffins. They print your passion on your coffin - a gorgeous lake with fish for the former fisherman, etc. So now we can return to the earth, wrapped in trees, frogs or piano keys - the pic beside.

Made around the corner

I am so proud that this lightweight material is manufactured right here on our doorstep. In 2007 environmental entrepreneur James Beattie started the Xanita board manufacturing plant in Somerset West. They use recycled fibres from old cardboard boxes and sugar cane waste, to create high-strength board up to 7 times lighter than particleboard, without any harmful volatile organic compounds. With their high strength-to-weight ratio these rigid boards are designed to replace formaldehyde-based furniture and construction boards. And to top it all these boards are recycled again afterwards. So here we have a perfect example of cradle- to-cradle application of resources in a cyclical system simulating nature.

Xanita exports their boards to 24 countries across the world, where almost any furniture is made from it.

‘The only limit to the use of this board is your imagination,’ says Craig Fussell.

Shelves, bench tops, architectural boards, workstations, credenzas, entertainment units, display counters, bookshelves, room dividers, even kitchen cupboards. As a truly eco material, it replaces petrochemical based foam-core boards and can be directly printed on with UV inkjets, or covered in decorative laminates. Now shops can be fitted and homes furnished with a substantially lower footprint.

In Australia at the Design Expo 2009 one of their business partners won the ‘best new product award’ with Xanita board products.