Recycling 'snooping' was only part of a pilot programme

Powys County Council has said a pilot programme in which residents' recycling was checked by inspectors has not continued.

MyNewtown and the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported how recycling boxes and bins were checked by council staff to ensure people were recycling correctly.

Letters were sent to them depending on how they were doing following a spot check.

Powys County Council was part of the initiative that took place throughout Wales, but it has said it only participated in the pilot programme and homes in a south Powys town were targeted.

"I just want to clear up that the we were involved in the pilot of this initiative but it concentrated in households down in the Ystradgynlais area. It was not piloted across the whole county," said a council spokesperson.

According to the LDRS 1,397 properties were checked in Powys, with 288 receiving "green" letters saying they are recycling well, 791 amber ones saying they could recycling better and 318 red ones that say they are not doing enough and could do more.

And council enforcement officers have also used face-to-face door knocking where people have not disposed of waste properly in a bid to encourage recycling.

The Everyone’s Doing It recycling scheme has been likened to “big brother” by one opposition councillor, but councils have said the schemes aim to help people to recycle more.

Each council in Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taf and the Vale of Glamorgan have carried out pilots looking at what and how much people present for recycling by analysing their waste.

Across the South East Wales and Powys region 950 homes received red letters, while 2008 letters were green and 2888 were amber.