Cemeteries Are Running Out Of Room, So Guess What They're Doing....

Image Via BusinessWeek

Though this might be a little morbid, it is something everyone should know. The reality is, right now, cemeteries are running out of room all across the world. From New York to Beijing, there are places where they are running out of places to bury the dead. While that, alone, may be sort of horrifying in concept, it gets worse. Wait until you hear how some of them handle this problem.

First off, places are encouraging "green burials". What that means for those of us who may have to do it in the future is that they bury you without a metal coffin and without embalming you. Which means, you turn into fertilizer. Yes, the thought is sweet in an "earth day" kind of way. But it is actually terrifying to think about in concept. There is even a place in Sweden that freeze dries the body and then smashes it into bits (sounds like a dyslexic cremation). The craziest of all is what they are doing in London, though.

In 2007 they passed a law that individual cemeteries could dig up graves that are at least 75 years old to make room for new ones. Rumor is they have not put this into effect because of just how morbid it seems. It seems to be a real issue worldwide, and seems many places are handling it differently. Read the rest here.

Via SuperPunch


They have been digging up old graves to make room for new graves in London for a couple of millennia now. Church yards/cemeteries are small and people always want to be buried in them. I don't see why it should be more morbid now than before.

Regardless, as crowds tend to make me uncomfortable, I'd prefer to stay as far away from cemeteries as possible when I kick the bucket.
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Well, if there's one thing more icky than decomposing naturally via a "green burial", it's the horror that bodies become when they're embalmed and experience anaerobic decomposition in a sealed vault. Google "adipocere".
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The Catacombs in Paris are testament to the fact that this has happened before. They dug up the old bodies and buried the bones in old mines that run under the city.
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