A lady has revealed a council worker told her she could throw her soiled colostomy bags into any wheelie bin of her choice.
She acted after her general waste wheelie bin was not emptied - and the contents were attracting swarms of flies.
Now a councillor has taken up her case and is "seeking urgent reassurances" about the standard of advice given out by the Renfrewshire Council staffer.
Linwood Councillor Scott Kerr said the lady, who lives in the town, was given a "dismissive response."
The Scottish Conservative and Unionist councillor received a complaint after a constituent's grey bin failed to be emptied by the council.
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Councillor Kerr said: "She contacted Renfrewshire Council only to be told she could put the colostomy bag in any bin.
"The grey bin is now gathering flies on it, with the constituent trying in vain to spray them away. She suffers from serious health issues and this situation as completely unacceptable."
Councillor Kerr revealed environmental officers have now told him the operative who responded to his constituent will be reminded that medical waste can only be put in a grey bin.
He added: "My constituent should not have been dismissed in this way by a council official.
"It was a double whammy for this resident. First they didn’t have their bin collected, then they were given misinformation when they rang the council for help.
"These are basic situations that the council should not be getting wrong. An apology was the least they could have given after these mistakes.
“It is imperative that the non-collection of this bin is sorted urgently and information is always given out accurately to residents when they phone Renfrewshire Council. I will be continuing to push for guarantees to ensure this never happens again.”
A spokesman for Renfrewshire Council said: “We are sorry to hear of any confusion and can advise medical waste should be disposed of in a resident’s grey bin.
"Our customer service colleagues have been reminded of this and more details are available on our website on what goes in each bin and how to report a missed bin collection.”
