A local funeral parlor in Pingtan county is allegedly insisting on the use of paper-made coffins for dead people in order to make a profit, Pingtan Times reported on Nov 25.

The newspaper was tipped-off by Lin Shiliang, a local resident who recently sent a dead family relative to the funeral parlor for cremation.

Lin claimed that the agency charged him 380 yuan for the coffin and refused to proceed with the cremation without a coffin.

“We could do nothing but buy the coffin eventually. How could they foist that on dead people?”

Resting the deceased in a paper-made coffin will retain his dignity. And it will make the whole process cleaner, according to an employee of the agency, who added that “everyone wants to buy it”.

The paper coffin is an optional service. And the agency will even give away some coffins for financially-stretched families, according to Zhou Wen, curator of the funeral parlor.

“We’ll inform employees to comply with the will of the dead family’s members if they decide not to avail themselves of this service,” he said.

The funeral parlor, if it did foist coffins on the deceased, would be breaking the Law on Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers which stipulates that customers have the right to choose commodities and service of their own, according to the Consumer Protection Association.

The association can be reached for complaints on telephone number 12315.