"It's mandated that whenever a burial takes place, a portion of that payment is put into an endowment care trust." Once a cemetery is filled, the endowment care trust is designed to handle maintenance of the grounds indefinitely. The mandate was put in place in 1955. Before then, setting funds aside was optional.

How do cemeteries make money when they are full?

Opening and closing services: One of the main services a cemetery sells is the opening and closing of gravesites—i.e., gravedigging. This is where the cemetery digs a grave before burial and fills the grave afterward. ... In fact, installing gravestones and headstones is where many cemeteries make most of their money.

What happens when there is no more space in a cemetery?

Due to the increase of the urban population, many boroughs are running out of room to bury the dead and the solution they have come up with is to recycle old graves. Any graves that have been untouched for 75 years are being re-opened, after consultation with living family members, and re-used for a new body.