this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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No Stupid Questions

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116
Will we eventually run out of graveyards? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago by TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
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[–] viking 83 points 2 years ago (3 children)

No. Typically you only rent a plot in a graveyard for 10-30 years, and unless you or your heir(s) extend the lease, the graves will be dug up and used again. By that time most of the old casket and body have disintegrated to a pile of crumbling bones. Those will either be taken out and fully incinerated, or if the decay is progressed to a point where not much is left to begin with, a thin layer of soil covers the remnants and the new casket will simply be put on top.

It's also getting more and more "fashionable" to get incinerated right away, so that's really a non-issue.

[–] master5o1@lemmy.nz 37 points 2 years ago (2 children)

There are places in the world with a standard practice of forever plots.

For example, I don't think it's common in NZ for plots to be a time period before disinterment.

[–] gdog05@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

New Zealanders have all that room after the elves left, so that makes sense.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Read the fine prints. Even places with forever promises stipulate something like a maximum of 100 years if there's no survivor to extend the contract. For all practical intents and purposes that is forever for a family, roughly 4 generations at which point people start being forgotten.

[–] master5o1@lemmy.nz 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

tbh I don't care.

But there's no mention of any sort of time limits on Auckland Council's website about their cemeteries. Only one is an exclusive right prior to burial over use of the plot of 60 years which is intended to allow people to reserve a plot near family members.

But it appears correct to assume a burial has no specific term length and doesn't expire. Disinterment after even 100 years not being a standard procedure. That said, the country is only about 200 years old.

[–] Psythik@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Does this apply to military cemeteries as well?

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[–] HipsterTenZero@dormi.zone 2 points 2 years ago

Utterly deranged way of dealing with the dead imo; stick em in the ground for a little bit like they're kimchi? Just skip ahead to the incineration part for me, thanks

[–] DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone 52 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

Why do we even have graveyards? Embalming chemicals leach out and poison water tables, carbon footprint is horrendous, land is wasted for superstitious nonsense. Just cremate and scatter the ashes.

https://slate.com/technology/2022/10/cemeteries-drinking-tap-water-pollution-aquifers-dead-bodies.html , among others.

[–] MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 45 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I want to be cremated, and then have my ashes condensed into a diamond. I want that diamond to be embedded in the hilt of a sword. I want everybody in my family for generations to be put in the same sword and then in the distant future when the zombies arise, my great great great great grandchild can break the glass and weild the blade honing the power of generations of ancestors in their hand and start lobbing off heads.

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

Uhh... Is it too late to change my answer?

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 8 points 2 years ago

Well, at least you've got dreams

[–] Pea666@feddit.nl 27 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Or just bury people without embalming them first? As a non-American I find it super weird that it’s the norm in the US. Why would you still do that anyway?

[–] thlcn@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Embalming? WTF?! I guess I should have watched Six feet under to learn something

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

It's a legal requirement.

[–] Pea666@feddit.nl 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I know, but other than manmade laws, why?

As far as I know, it’s a US thing right? In the Netherlands embalming has been expressly prohibited up until 2009 I think. Granted, Dutch laws concerning what you can do with a dead body are pretty strict but embalming just seems weird to me.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 years ago

Other than laws? Probably, to a degree, like an unfortunate number of things in the US, money. As of 2019, the death industry was >$20 Billion industry.

Over here in the US, we're stuck in a neoliberal hellscape where profit is more important than any human being and grief-stricken families are fair game for exploitation.

[–] IamtheMorgz@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

I actually don't think that is true. Caitlin Dougherty on YouTube has a video on it though. It's pushed by funeral directors because it's a big money maker for them.

[–] Estiar@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It has to do with Christianity. Many Christians believe that Christ will come back raising the dead and restoring their bodies

[–] Pea666@feddit.nl 5 points 2 years ago

I’m pretty sure most denominations of Christianity bury their dead without embalming them first and have done so for most of history.

[–] SlurpDaddySlushy@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Nah don't cremate. Bury the body with no box and no preservation. Get those nutrients right back into the soil as fast as possible.

[–] TurdMongler@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes please. This is how I want to be buried. Back to the earth asap.

[–] pg_sax_i_frage@lemmy.wtf 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

green/natural burials are cool.

Heres some resources, links anyway, that might be helpful with planning, if you wnat to and havent allready, for a green burial,( ahead of time, and ensuring that thise wishes are carried out later) , : 💀🌳 🌳🌲🌳🌲🌲🌱 https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/green-burial/ https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/interactive-maps.html

and, for another jurisdiction, :http://www.naturaldeath.org.uk/index.php?page=find-a-natural-burial-site

💀🌳 🌳🌲🌳🌲🌲🌱 also worth mentioning,: if the intention is to go back to to the Erth as soon as possible, then the! not yet as widy avalable, but becoming more avalable repidly) 'natural organic reduction' could be a way to do that, similarly to that green burial, but often more quickly. they can make the whole decomposition happen o a highly controlled environment, conditions monitored and adjusted of needed for ideal decomposition conditions...

if that sound interesting see https://recompose.life/, for the company that started the practice, and offers the service.

And green funerals, a more widely avalable, and also very cool, option.

💀🌳 🌳🌲🌳🌲🌲🌱

[–] TurdMongler@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Thank you for the detailed information.

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[–] squeezeyerbawdy@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

There are other methods becoming more widely available In the US too such as Aquamation (alkaline hydrolysis) which yields similar remains like ashes you can spread and human composting (https://recompose.life/) which don’t emit fossil fuel emissions.

Not for everyone, sure, but I wanted to be composted. I liked that I would become a cubic yard of nutrient rich soil in about 30 days and will be utilized for forest restoration.

The mushroom shroud that breaks you down is also super cool but was pretty out of my price range.

[–] HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world 49 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Im going to lean to no. The world is incredibly empty, and we are squishy and biodegradable.

Graveyards (well, cemeteries) aren't permanent - permanent compared to human lifetime, but not permanent.

[–] sheogorath@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

We're going to the way of Toraja people, do some voodoo magic to make the corpse walk to their grave and then after they decompose just store the skull in a cave nearby.

[–] electrogamerman@lemmy.world 36 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Yes, one day the whole world is going to be a big graveyard.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Kinda already is a big graveyard

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I've got a bunch of bones out in the yard right now

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

No, because most people are cremated these days, and over time bones deteriorate. Plus, we can always make new graveyards.

But the big thing is that old graveyards are often “relocated” — the marked graves are dug up and the contents stacked/put closer together with any gravestones or markers stuck closer together above ground.

[–] NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

most people are cremated these days

Only in very few countries.

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[–] Laticauda@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 years ago

Eventually even bones decay, unless fossilized, and fossilized bones are just, well, fancy rocks. So it's not like human remains stick around forever.

[–] optimal@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

rocks break. humans biodegrade. so no.

[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

So my rock hard abs won't save me from Time?

[–] Burninator05@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Your best bet is to challenge Death to a crunch-off and then win.

[–] Laticauda@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Unfortunately Death is the crunch king. Dude is shredded.

[–] Blastasaurus@lemm.ee 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There was a panic here in Vancouver (known for it's out of control real estate market) this year and burial plots were going for like $90,000 IIRC.

Don't be too poor to die.

[–] Pizza@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Well now I'm gonna die with $89,000 just to see what'd happen

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[–] Kengaro0@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

We'll just go 12 feet under

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de 6 points 2 years ago

The Jewish Cemetery of Prague has up to a dozen layers because of the tight Jewish Quarter.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Even if we fill every bit of earth with dead bodies, we still have other planets and the empty vacuum of space itself to put them. So no.

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