Using cardboard coffins in this country isn’t about being green

In a world where nothing is certain except for death and taxes, cash-strapped Venezuelans have found an ingenious way to cut expenses for at least one of the two.

Venezuela’s deep recession has triggered shortages of raw materials, triple digit inflation, long queues, riots and rising crime. Now, necessity seems to be generating some creative solutions as two Venezuelan businessmen see growing demand for their invention, a coffin that is easy on the pocket book and the environment.

Three years ago, Alejandro Blanchard and Elio Angulo created a cardboard coffin that was biodegradable, a niche in one of the world’s most murderous countries.

With coffin production curbed by a shortage of brass, varnish and satin, their biocofre coffin helps make funerals affordable in one of the world’s most murderous countries.

A cardboard coffin is seen at a mortuary in Valencia.

“Death impoverishes the masses,” Blanchard said. “It’s a cost that people have to take on and they are never prepared for it. And the way things are right now (in Venezuela), when you have to take it on, you find it is very expensive because funeral services are very expensive. So the biocofre, which has the benefit of being ecological, is a pretty good solution to what is going on in Venezuela right now.”

While biodegradable coffins have been a trend in Europe and the United States, they did not take off in Venezuela until now, when many families have revisited them out of economic necessity.

Alejandro Blanchard assembles a cardboard coffin at a mortuary in Valencia.

With a wooden coffin costing as much as 280,000 bolivares (more than 12 times the minimum salary), the biocofre, at only 65,000 bolivares (RM267), can slash funeral costs as much as 80%, according to funeral home owner Miguel Salazar.

But Blanchard, an attorney whose family has worked in the funeral business for years, says he is most proud of offering an environmentally-friendly alternative.

“We focus on the preservation of conservation of the environment. In order to build a conventional coffin, three trees are cut down while only one tree is cut down to make 100 biocofres. More than 70% of the raw material of a biocofre is recycled,” he said.

According to the National Chamber for Funeral Companies, coffin production has dropped some 50 percent in recent months and funerals are skyrocketing as violent crime left at least 11,000 people dead last year.

Angulo (bottom C) lies inside a cardboard coffin next to Blanchard as they introduce their product to potential customers.

With undertakers borrowing coffins from each other, Salazar lauded the biocofre as a creative solution.

“This is an extraordinary idea which is an alternative to all these problems that we are going through: a shortage of raw material and the distribution of traditional coffins. This is a fairly originally system,” he said.

Made out of recycled corrugated cardboard, the biocofre can hold 230kgs, is waterproof, light and can be constructed in just a few minutes. – Reuters

Source : Star2.com