Shutterstock
As final resting places go, burials may still be the most traditional, but with a recent BBC survey revealing that there will be no space to bury the dead within 20 years, what’s the solution?
Here are 12 alternative ways other people have considered listed by Elysium Memorials - we're not sure how we feel about being interred at a golf course. Actually we do know - it won't be a peaceful afterlife wondering if Donald Trump's buggy is rolling across your grave.
We do quite like the sound of a sea burial, however. Tell us your preferred choice in the comments below:
12 Alternative Ways To Die
Cryogenically Frozen(01 of12)
The rumours about Walt Disney being cryogenically preserved are false, but the process of giving death the cold shoulder is far from science fiction. Cryonics is the cooling of dead people to liquid nitrogen temperature, halting physical decay, with the idea that technology developed in the future will be able to revive them. Media mogul Simon Cowell recently admitted he was interested in cryonics, but it's not just celebrities and a few eccentric American millionaires keen to cheat death by putting their faith in cryonics – hundreds of Brits have signed up for the second chance of life and non-profit organisations like cryonics-uk are on hand help. Immediately after a death certificate is signed by a doctor, their team will arrive at your door by ambulance to restore your heartbeat and keep your cells alive. Your body will then be cooled in ice, before a combination of medication, saline-like solutions and anti-freeze are added to your blood. Your body will ultimately be placed in a special cooling box, before being shipped to the chosen cryonics storage provider – most likely in the USA. There are half a dozen cryogenics companies in the US today. A whole-body freeze can cost about $150,000, while just freezing a head (known as neuropreservation) is only about $90,000. Some companies also charge an annual membership fee, so in the cold light of day, it’s a fairly expensive after-life option, which may well freeze out the average earning corpse.
Cliff Hanger(02 of12)
High cliffs are scattered with hanging coffins in the mountainous areas of South China and Luzon Island in the Philippines. The coffins sit on beam projections or in mountainside caves in the belief they bring the deceased closer to heaven. Being an island, England has hundreds of miles of coastal cliff space ripe for coffins. Could this cliff-hanger be the perfect solution to England’s burial crisis? Well, first and foremost, perhaps make sure your family members have a head for heights before arranging the funeral service.
Natural Burial And Memorial Art(03 of12)
The 270 natural burial sites which have sprung up across the country in the past 20 years, offer an environmentally friendly and cost effective alternative to traditional cemetery burials and cremations. Because natural burial graves are often unmarked and untended to allow the land and un-embalmed body to return to nature as naturally as possible, many families commission artists to make personalised memorials of remembrance to keep in their home or garden. Elysiummemorials.com is a collective of skilled artists who specialise in making contemporary bespoke memorials using stone, blown glass, wood and calligraphy. Prior to creating a commemorative piece of art, they carry out consultations to capture the personality, character and spirit of the commemorated individual. Commissions for remembrance art range from bespoke blown glass candle holders, which can feature the ashes of a loved one, to freestanding mixed material sculptures. For an increasing number of baby boomers, a combination of memorial art for the home and a natural burial on land which one day will be put to agricultural use or become much-needed established woodland, represents a more meaningful and environmentally friendly death. (credit:www.wombournefuneralservices.co.uk)
Re-Using Graves And Vertical Burials(04 of12)
In 2006 the then Constitutional Affairs Minister, Harriet Harman (Labour), said she was prepared to push Parliament for new legislation in a bid to tackle "political taboos" around burials in England. Harman’s proposals included reopening untended 100-year-old graves and transferring small fragments of bone and coffin into smaller containers, before burying them deeper into the same plot. Another coffin could then be lowered into the original space. Descendants would have the right to object to remains being exhumed, although The Church of England, Roman Catholic Church and the Muslim Council of Britain have all said such burials would not conflict with their faiths. Harman even muted the idea of vertical burials – or as she described it “lift and deepen” burials. Harman explained: “This is where you use space - I am phrasing this delicately - in a vertical, as well as a horizontal way.” Earth augers – which are used for boring holes for telephone poles – have been suggested for burying coffins vertically.
Body Farms And Medical Science(05 of12)
So how do detectives on television crime series like CSI know the time of death of a dead body? Well at the University of Tennessee's Forensic Anthropology Centre, in Knoxville, USA, there are more than 650 skeletons within a 2.5 acre body farm. Researchers study them in varying stages of decay to help the police answer important questions, such as body identification and time of death. Body farms are so popular in America there are waiting lists of people wanting to donate their bodies. Although England has no body farms at the moment, it is only a matter of time according to Dr Anna Williams, a senior lecturer in forensic science at the University of Huddersfield. Dr Williams says: “Forensic research is getting more recognition but we are also being hindered by the fact that we don’t have a human facility so there is a lot of pressure from academics and quite a few, about 20 or 30, taphonomy researchers want one.” It is perfectly legal to donate your body to medical science in the England though. Under the Human Tissue Act 2004, a consent form needs to be obtained a medical school and kept with the Will. Medical schools will normally only accept donations from within their local area due to the transport costs involved. Or you could take it one step further like the famous composer Andre Tchaikovsky, who died in 1982 and left his body to medical research, as well as donated his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company. He bequeathed that it be used as a prop on stage. In 2008, the skull was held by David Tennant in a series of performances of Hamlet at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. (credit:University of Tennessee's Forensic Anthropology Centre)
Golfatorium(06 of12)
In his book ‘The Undertaking’, US undertaker and writer Thomas Lynch proposed the idea of a “Golfatorium”. Essentially it’s a golf course which doubles up as cemetery. Mr Lynch calculated that the average 18 hole golf course could take up to 16 thousand burials – ignoring cremated ashes scattered in sand bunkers. With nearly 3,000 golf courses in the UK alone, there could be up to 48 million burial spaces going to waste with each swing of a golf club. So perhaps we should forget about a hole in one, and perhaps focus on holes for 48 million? And it’s a burial option which isn’t as out-of-bounds as you might first imagine – at least that’s if the American entrepreneur Donald Trump has anything to do with it. The billionaire property magnate - who is currently building “the best golf course in the world” in Balmedie, Scotland - hopes to one day be buried on his 500-acre golf course in New Jersey.
Furniture(07 of12)
The Coffin Couch is made from recycled coffins and is the brainchild of Californian company CoffinCouches.com. Although they recommend Coffin Couch remains empty, the idea of using furniture to bury the dead hasn’t put off some people. According to a 1992 edition of the Weekly World News, a 32-year-old named Jeff Green, from Arizona, USA, was so grief stricken after his wife’s death that he decided to keep her in an airtight glass coffee table in his front room. (credit:http://coffincouches.com)
Cremation(08 of12)
Back in the 19th century England was facing a similar burial space crisis as it is again today – until, that was, the physician to Queen Victoria visited Italy and discovered a process known as cremation. At the time cremation was illegal in England, but when Sir Henry Thompson returned from Italy it was soon legalised. Cremation fast became the way to go, and by the end of the 20th Century more than 70 per cent of the deceased were cremated, using more than 240 crematoria. Ashes have been kept and scattered in a variety of ways through the years. Gonzo journalist and writer Hunter S Thompson asked his close friend Johnny Depp to blast his remains out of cannon as part of a firework display. Meanwhile companies like Celestis specialize in 'memorial spaceflights', scattering ashes into space for as little as $1,000. Most recently the SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, carrying the ashes of 320 people – including Star Trek's James "Scotty" Doohan. Although cremation appears to be the obvious alternative to burials, in recent years it has been criticized for its environmental credentials. A single cremation is said to be equivalent to a 500-mile car journey. And the cremations of 74 per cent of all deaths in the UK in 2012 (425,784 people) created the release of masses of toxic fumes into the atmosphere, as well as significant energy usage.
Multi-story Mausoleums(09 of12)
Instead of going down and out with traditional graves, some experts believe we should go upwards and outwards with multi-story mausoleums. It’s been a popular option for the privileged throughout history, from the Egyptian pyramids to the Taj Mahal in India, and it remains the final preference for many a dignitary to this day. The Queen Mother, for instance, was laid to rest in the royal vault at St George's Chapel, Windsor, in 2002, alongside her husband King George VI. But the sky is quite literally the limit for mausoleums and the ordinary man as well – as The Memorial Necropole Ecumenica, in Santos, Brazil, proves. Built in 1983; according to the Guinness Book of World Records it is the highest cemetery in the world. Known as the "vertical graveyard", it has the capacity to hold 14,000 burial spaces, spread over 14 floors. Mausoleums have also undergone a revival in post-war Italy, where increasingly crammed cemeteries prompted the ideology "land for the living, not for the dead". Of course mausoleums can also be subterranean space savers as well. When the graveyards of Paris became full in the 17th century, thousands of bodies were exhumed and placed in Catacombes de Paris. Today its piles of bones are a popular tourist destination. So could England’s city skylines or unused sewers be the solution to the country’s graveyard crisis? Watch this space.
Sea Burial(10 of12)
Burials at sea have been conducted for centuries by the Royal Navy, but maritime send-offs are not just exclusive to servicemen and women. There are about 20 sea burials a year in England (excluding naval burials), but all require a licence from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). If granted, burials are available in two locations in the UK - The Needles, Isle of Wight, and between Hastings and Newhaven on the South Coast. The Food and Environmental Protection Act 1985, however, does not encourage burials at sea, as tides and currents pose a significant risk of the body being returned to shore or being caught up in fishing gear. In fact, the prospect of dead bodies being washed up on England’s beaches caused such alarm during the Winter of Discontent in 1978-79, that a suggestion to start sea burials after gravediggers went on strike prompted a resolution to the strike. Anyone unfazed by obtaining a licence for a sea burial will most likely need the help of a specialist, such as Paul Williams Independent Funeral Directors Ltd. And successful applicants will ultimately require their coffins to be fitted with bracing struts, iron weights and steel banding – making a sea burial quite an expensive end to life, if nothing else.
Plastination(11 of12)
How do you fancy being pumped full of plastic and put on display, like a toy soldier or semi-human Madame Tussauds figure? Well, thanks to German doctor Gunther von Hagens, it’s now an option. Taxidermy is too complex a process for the human body, while mummification and embalming only lasts so long, so in 1977 Dr von Hagens came up with plastination. The preservation process entails replacing the water and fat in a corpse with polyurethane - a synthetic material used in toys. Plastinated bodies can be touched, do not smell or decay and have been touring the world for several years as part of a popular exhibition known as ‘Body Works’. Anyone aged 18 and above can donate their bodies to Body Works, although they may not have a great deal of control over what position their corpse is put in after they’ve been plastinated.
Embalmed And Exhibited(12 of12)
When Russian revolutionist Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, he was embalmed and put on public display in Lenin's Mausoleum, Moscow. Experts commonly agree that embalming doesn’t last that long, but to this day Lenin’s body remains intact and on display. That’s despite a recent survey revealing nearly half of Russians think he should be buried. When North Korea’s Kim Jong-il died in 2011, his body was also embalmed and remains on display in a glass cabinet in the family home at Pyongyang's Kumsusan Memorial Palace. But embalming isn’t exclusive to just the rich and regal. A funeral home in Puerto Rico recently used a special embalming treatment to keep the body of 24-year-old Angel Pantoja Medina standing upright, in the family living room, donning a New York Yankees cap and sunglasses. Although an option, for the meanwhile embalmment looks set to be preserved as an alternative to the traditional burial.