Special collection arrangements can be made as part of Pembrokeshire’s new recycling kerbside scheme after a Tenby councillor pointed out that the ‘purple bags’ could cause embarrassment for some.

As part of Pembrokeshire County Council’s waste collection changes to recycle the amount of waste sent to landfill, new purple bags for ‘absorbent products’ - such as nappies, incontinence care products, and colostomy bags have been included, but it has led to concerns over personal waste being left out for everyone to potentially see, stated Clr. Mrs Tish Rossiter at a meeting of Tenby town council.

“I applaud the purpose of the new recycling scheme, but have been approached by people stating that the purple bags are too personal to be putting out on the roadside with the rest of their rubbish,” Clr. Mrs. Rossiter told her fellow members recently.

Speaking at Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council, the town clerk Andrew Davies told members that he’d received correspondence from the County Council’s head of environmental Services and public protection, Richard Brown on the matter who advised that special arrangements can be made for collection if households contact the authority.

“There are a couple of options, Mr. Brown advises - purple bags can be left out in a separate container and PCC will collect them, as long as they are told in advance of what they need to look out for, also, they can arrange for a collection to be made from the property itself, and not the roadside, again if notified by the householder,” said Mr. Davies.

Clr. Mrs. Rossiter said she was glad these options were available and hoped that it would allay some people’s concerns.