Green Britons can now be buried in fair trade coffins

The coffins will be made at a site employing around 70 people in the Nilphamari district. Credit: The Co-Operative/PA Wire

Handmade bamboo and willow coffins from Bangladesh are being made available in the UK, carrying with them a fair trade status.

The move comes amid increasing demand for alternative materials for coffins as woodland burials become increasingly popular.

Co-operative Funeralcare, which will offer the coffins at more than 900 homes across the UK, said "green" funerals grew 20% in 2011, with one in 20 coffins now bespoke.

Fair trade organisation Traidcraft, which has officially endorsed the coffins, said the initiative was "providing hope for the future in a region of Bangladesh which has been blighted by extreme poverty."

The coffins will be made at a site employing around 70 people in the Nilphamari district.

The finished product for the ethically minded burial. Credit: The Co-Operative/PA Wire

Traidcraft visited the factory and growers to ensure the producers have decent working conditions and are paid a fair price, while ensuring the suppliers of the raw materials also receive a fair payment.

Co-operative Funeralcare's head of marketing, Lorinda Robinson, said the launch of the fairly traded coffins was a "natural, if unusual, progression" of the firm's support for fair trade.