Pierre Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
A recent reference to Soylent Green as a menu item that would reduce burdens created by more mouths to feed on fewer resources brought recycling into the discussion. What the heck, heh?
As this article in today’s BBC points out, we’re quickly running out of room for storing all the empty containers we will all drop …
Resting beside our loved ones when the time comes is a reassuring notion for the living. Families pay thousands of pounds for land where generations can rest in peace together for eternity.
But in the UK at least, the ground is filling up.
Should I wish to, I could not be buried near to my relatives at Yardley Cemetery in south Birmingham. Space there ran out in 1962.
Similarly, I would struggle to find a place near another strand of my family in Halesowen. There is no room left underground there and other facilities at nearby Lye and Wollescote are expected to run out in the next four years.
What if I head south? I lived in Brighton once and a seaside burial sounds quite nice. But four of the seven cemeteries run by Brighton and Hove Council are already full, and of the three remaining, one is for Orthodox Jews only.
Yes, the days of great whopping tombs constructed over the illustrious dead are about done, and even the standard single 3’x7’x77″ plot is only a short term stopgap measure in some places.
Some countries use a “double decker” approach to avoid overcrowding.
In Germany, graves are reused after only 30 years, the existing remains usually being exhumed and cremated. In Australia and New Zealand, “dig and deepen” is carried out in urban areas as a matter of routine.
Tim Morris, chief executive of the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management, says it is time to change tack.
“It’s a no-brainer,” he says. “Re-use is common in lots of other countries, and was common practice in the UK until the 1850s. I’ve spent some time with some German gravediggers and there the limit is 30 years, but people aren’t happy with that, they want it lowered to 20.”
With my son buried between my father and my grandfather within feet of my great-grandparents, the idea of breaking up the family appalls me, but I do understand the need to free up space in areas more populated than the tiny town in Northern California where they lie. Even there the population of dead outnumbers the living by about 300%.
Those laid to rest in one spot in perpetuity add up over the centuries, after all, and even though the real estate per occupant may be no bigger than a broom closet acres can covered in just a couple of generations. Where habitation has been continuous for hundreds of generations … well … a visit to Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris gives a clue to what crowding looks like.
Cremation, of course, is not only an option but a societal dictate in some cultures. There’s no doubt it leaves more land available for the living, but it’s not everyone’s idea of an appropriate exit strategy.
With death being such a huge part of life, traditional methods of dealing with our dead are almost hardwired, and although some of us couldn’t care less what happens with our form once we shuck it those we leave behind usually react with strong feelings and attachments to one comforting protocol or another.
Even the realm of the dead is changing, however.
With space for the living growing more spare and precious and increasing concerns over our impact on our Earth, another method of dealing with the dead has been invented … and patented.
Promession may just be the way to go in future.
Promession is different from all other alternative burial methods because it is a gentle and clean process which uses vibration to reduce the body remains.
The method is based on three steps:
— Reducing the body of the deceased to a fine powder, thereby allowing subsequent decomposition to be aerobic. This is achieved by submerging the body in liquid nitrogen, making the remains so brittle that they shatter into a powder as the result of slight vibrations. The powder is then dried, reducing the deceased remains to around 30% of their original body weight.
— Removing and recycling metals within the powdered remains.
— Shallow-burying the powder in a biodegradable casket.
It is clear that to produce liquid nitrogen or LN2 on its own would be relatively costly, however this is offset by other factors when it is used to replace environmentally hazardous alternatives; Nitrogen is a by-product of the essential oxygen industry and for every 1 part oxygen, there are 4 parts of nitrogen produced; therefore the Promession method effectively recycles this waste product which otherwise is released back into the atmosphere.
Sweden, Great Britain and South Korea are already close to opening Promatoria (facilities for Promession-based funerals) that will fill the bill environmentally and legally.
The volume of remains left is about a third of the original body weight; the advantages include avoiding the release of pollutants into the atmosphere (for instance, mercury vapour from dental fillings) and the rapid decomposition of the remains (within 6 to 12 months of burial) and the return of the body to life’s cycle. Promession allows for families to be buried in the same plot without disturbing previous remains and meets the requirements of new European Union pollution laws.
It is yet to be seen if Promession will catch on, but I suspect some will sign up to have liquid nitrogen with their obsequies. It is more palatable than ending up on a cracker.
A collection of my short stories:
I'm in this one, too ...
And I'm in here, as well ...
Paradise Preoccupied 
In interesting piece on topics people rarely think about, to take a cynics view (which I often do, being a millennium old Greek that I am) As we often think of tragic deaths via natural disaster, hunger and so on, if you were to flip the coin and we came into a miracle day of existence where people stopped dieing, World would go under a shitstorm in no time. But burial rights will be a can of worms when it comes to those of a religious persuasion, where creamating or dividing the body is about the worse thing you could do the dead. I think that the apocalypse is very real and that we will reach with a mere sense of over population where nature will decide to….. clear up space and start over. Somewhat like a etchasketch drawing.
Well, Bobby, you’ve deposited a load of stuff to thing about here.
The idea of life, as we know it, continuing forever is not a pretty thought. The terribly flawed version we have access to now in the biological shell we inhabit does not shout for eternity … or shouldn’t. A flicker, a brief flame … whatever … in route to a more permanent role as clean burning energy seems tidier.
As for religious dictates about what happens to our shells … well … fuck ’em.
Agreed, I think if one was to look for eternal life, one should also look for eternal youth, but to be honest what I have seen in my 30 years of life I am not sure I would opt for never ending resolution, with the exception for the knowledge thirsty part of me whom forever seeks to learn and more.
~laughs~ well my dear if religion only dictated what happened to our shells then it wouldnt be much a problem, no the problem is that religion for many is the only the ore in this shit creek we call life and there only ways to navigate the rapid waters, thus as the old proverb says “those who live by the sword, die by the sword” so it is true for any mandate we follow in life, is hard to give up in death
Another dictate: You are what you eat.
Sorry, Bobby … late here and I’m ready for sleep …
My cremation will be paid for in two months. So happy I took care of that ahead of time so as not to burden my family. Family plot is only built for four so Mom, Dad and Sister already there. One plot left for my brother. Since I’m sure he will out live me we plan on just slipping my ashes in his casket. The whole family will then be together. I just don’t get a stone which is OK with me. I prefer to be mysterious. Only my real friends will know.
It’s strange, Robbie, but although I have no problem with cremation, when Jaren died I just couldn’t bear it. I needed him buried, and I’m still not sure why that was.
Saying that, though, having experienced the old fashioned version of it here, which was gruesome at best … just some wood and only sugar to make it burn hotter, which took hours and left way too much behind … I don’t want my kids to have to deal with that. I’ll go in a hole and do it the slow way. That will give them the ceremony as well as a place to visit.
Yes, burial has all to do with the living, and nothing to do with the dead. It is so that we can still “find” them…visiting my grandfathers grave… I talk to him…. you know its…as strange as it sounds….my connection to him. Which reminds that it has surly been a looooong time since I have been there ~sighs~
Take some time for a visit, Luv. I know I would if it was possible … and it would help …
~smiles and nods~ Sleep well dear, sweet dreams
Interesting topic and conversations. As you say the funeral and burial/cremation issue is done for the comfort of the living (we hope) and if we continue to do what we have always done then places will become crowded. A number of problems emerge. What to do with all the space given over to the dead, acres of headstones or plaques that people visit irregularly. In West Australia we have Pinnaroo cemetery, no headstones just plaques in the ground and looks like a park with waterfalls, pathways, and kangaroos and can be used for passive recreation. Still, who wants to picnic in a cemetery. We must be able to turn these under used facilities into active, useable places. Somewhere the living can commune with the dead in whatever manner they want and is a useable community space. Let’s face it as we live longer and lead lives more insulated from the bulk of our community there are less people in the immediate vicinity to visit our place of rest. In life we have a bigger on-line community than a local physical one. So where do they go to remember long lost Fb friends or LinkedIn contacts or what about the profile you have on RSVP, or eHarmony and the hook ups you’ve made there. Who will tell them you are deceased, how do they mourn? What happens when the online profiles of dead people clog up the “cloud”? So our problem of how to deal with the physical form after death is just one concern, what will we do with the gigabytes of space used by all those dead people. Can we archive it with them somewhere? Maybe a task for Steve Jobs now that he has some free time to think of these big issues.
Interesting thoughts, Allen.
My son’s facebook page is still up more than 2 years after his death, and I find that a comfort often. Not a week goes by without a few friends leaving messages there, and since I can’t get to his grave in California, having this ‘place’ to visit provides somewhat the same connection. Like the ground, cyber space will certainly fill up with the dead, and fast, and how that will be dealt with is a question to ponder. Personally, I’m hoping that someone like Steve Jobs will figure out a way to chat with those in the hereafter. That would be a more satisfying that just sitting on that “cloud” with some stupid harp, wouldn’t it?
and here was I thinking I would not have to worry about having the latest iPhone or upgrade in the after life 🙂
Ha! Maybe once we slip our mortal hardware we’re all just apps …