# where will we put all the corpses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2003, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-we-put-all-the-corpses/207142 "2003-10-13T08:10:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-we-put-all-the-corpses/207142/21 "2003-10-14T15:47:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by torie \* > \*\*when the body is dug up and put in an ossuary, what happenens to the gravestones? we must not do that here in america because i see really old gravestones and cemetaries all the time. \*\* I think most of them get thrown away. Maybe sometimes they grind away the writing and reuse them, but surely chisellers have piles for old gravestones. There are oooold gravestones on cemeteries here, too; for example, family graves with three or more generations in them. Isn’t it nice to be buried in the same tomb grandpa has been lying in too? Cemeteries aren’t owned privately here (Germany), btw. They’re owned and run by local authorities, so the supply&demand solution doesn’t work (although in the town where I live, a new cemetery was, well, put into operation a few years ago). The undertakers have been lobbying for years to repeal the regulations that provide for mandatory burial in public cemeteries, and in at least one of Germany’s 16 states chances are good that this could be done soon. But conservatives generally think that human dignity is violated if the urn with your ash is standing in the widow’s living room. Some small town mayor in France, I read in the news a few years ago, officially banned dying in his municipality because the local cemetery was full and due to environment protection laws he did not get permission to build a new one. Wasn’t said what they do if you die anyway, though. ---
**Author:** ![gluteus\_maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@gluteus\_maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gluteus_maximus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-we-put-all-the-corpses/207142/22 "2003-10-14T16:25:19Z")
Here in Japan, with roughly half the population of the US, but only 1/25 the land area, nobody worries about where to put the corpses… nearly all the dead are cremated. Buddhists’ ashes are interred at temple graveyards. A small minority choose to have their ashes scattered somewhere. Globally, where to put all of the living people’s excrement and garbage seems to be a bigger problem than where to put the dead people’s bodies. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-we-put-all-the-corpses/207142/23 "2003-10-14T16:48:00Z")
What about all these steel coffins and vaults being used in the United States? Are they dug up and thrown away or recycled? Isn’t it just a massive waste of resources? Why not require that bodies be buried directly into the ground to encourage swift absorption by the environment? ---
**Author:** ![gluteus\_maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@gluteus\_maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gluteus_maximus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-we-put-all-the-corpses/207142/24 "2003-10-14T16:55:28Z")
Think about what **Crafter\_Man** said… though perhaps not as big as the NRA, there surely is a morticians’ and related funeral business’ lobby… which probably already has much to say about legislation concerning processes and receptacles for the departed. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-we-put-all-the-corpses/207142/25 "2003-10-15T12:02:25Z")
> [@](#): > > **acsenray** : What about all these steel coffins and vaults being used in the United States? Are they dug up and thrown away or recycled? Isn’t it just a massive waste of resources? Why not require that bodies be buried directly into the ground to encourage swift absorption by the environment? It _is_ a waste of resources except for those who find some comfort in knowing they will be buried that way or those who can deal with the death of a loved one better that way. It’s a lie that some of us tell ourselves. But not all of us are that way. More and more of us are choosing cremation. And certainly not everyone can afford those vaults. There is a place in the state where I live that is nicknamed the Body Farm. Corpses are donated to the farm and are left in varying situations to decompose and to be studied at the various stages of decomposition. For example, one might be left in a car in summer. The Farm is run by the University of Tennessee. So we Tennesseans might say that _you_ are wasting valuable resources. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-will-we-put-all-the-corpses/207142.md?page=1)