COUNCIL inspectors have been accused of "wading through women’s used sanitary products" to see if families in East Lothian qualify for a bigger waste bin.

Residents say that they have faced "degrading" and "humiliating" situations as they struggled with hygiene waste, after East Lothian Council moved its fortnightly household bin collections to once every three weeks earlier this year.

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A petition signed by more than 2,700 people called for the reinstatement of the two-weekly service and claimed that the three-week wait for their green wheelie bins to be emptied discriminated against the most vulnerable in society, large families and the disabled.

A meeting of the council’s petitions committee on Wednesday heard claims of council waste inspectors resorting to humiliating trawls through residents’ refuse.

Kate King, who started the petition, told the meeting that a yellow bag service provided for absorbent hygiene products (AHPs) left some people feeling embarrassed and humiliated, as it alerted neighbours to the presence of an incontinent family member or the need for extra collections.

And she said that some people who had contacted her had talked about council workers going through their bins when they requested a larger one to cope with additional waste, when they did not want to use the yellow bags or did not know about them.

She said: “The yellow bag service is not promoted on the website or in the collection calendar. Many people do not want it because they do not want everyone to know there is an infirm person at home.

“And we need to stop council waste workers wading through women’s used sanitary products to see if they qualify for a bigger bin.”

READ MORE: More than 2,700 sign petition against three-week bin wait

The AHP service is not publicised by the council but does provide those who sign up with yellow bags which are collected kerbside every two weeks and can be used for nappies, sanitary products and incontinence pads.

The committee was told that it was not promoted because of concern it would be misused.

Ms King added that, in some cases, neighbours, particularly in flats, had fallen out over other people using their bins when their own filled up, while some had even resorted to putting padlocks on their waste bins.

She urged the committee to return to fortnightly collections; however, Tom Reid, the council’s head of infrastructure, said that doing so would mean bringing in extra staff and vehicles at an estimated cost of £400,000, as well as losing the £500,000 saving that the council was making as a result of the reduced service.

Mr Reid told the committee that the change was made to encourage more recycling by residents and to meet national and local standards.

He said: “If you recycle as much as you can then the standard household waste bin is enough. The green bin should be the last resort for waste.”

Mr Reid added that the AHP service was not a statutory requirement for the council and recycling advisers visited homes which were requesting larger bins in order to “assist” them.

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He said: “The household green bins should be the last resort for waste material.

"We do checks to make sure people are getting it correct.”

Councillor Lee-Anne Menzies told the committee that she had pushed for the three-weekly bin service, even advocating for a monthly collection, but was told by Mr Reid that was "ridiculous".

She said: “I think the council is doing the right thing for the right reason.

"Our household is busy at the moment and we don’t struggle.

"I recycle and we have two green recycling boxes, three blue recycling boxes and two white recycling bags.”

However, Councillor Jeremy Findlay told the meeting that he had experienced the issues first-hand after a visit by young family members who used nappies, saying that the green bin had smelled terrible.

The committee rejected the petition by three votes to one, with Ms Menzies joined by fellow councillors John McMillan and council leader Norman Hampshire in voting against it, but Mr Findlay supporting it.

The rejected petition had also asked officers to look at ensuring that carer groups were aware of the AHP service so that they could identify people who might need it.