THE Vale of Glamorgan Council has decided to drop most parts of a recycling scheme that saw officers sending letters or even visiting residents’ homes if they were not recycling enough.

Thousands of residents in Cardiff and south east Wales received ‘red’, ‘amber’, or ‘green’ letters about how they are “performing” with recycling rates, after several councils took part in the scheme.

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

A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesperson said: “The council supports this scheme’s aim of encouraging recycling, but we will not be adopting many of its proposals.

“Only residents that receive a red outcome will be contacted by officers and this will be purely to offer guidance.”

All households in the pilot were visited “to provide support, encouragement and a thank you, where applicable for good recycling,” a campaign spokeswoman said.

The Everyone’s Doing It recycling scheme was likened to “Big Brother” by one Cardiff opposition councillor, but councils have said the schemes aim to help people to recycle more.

Councils including the Vale carried out pilots examining what and how much people recycled by analysing their waste.

Based on the results residents receive green letters to say they’re recycling well, amber letters if they could recycle a bit more or red letters warning people they need to start recycling and offering them advice.

Across south east Wales 950 homes received red letters, while 2,008 letters were green and 2,888 were amber.

House visits were not pre-arranged, but letters were not classed as a cold-call “as each household had received a letter, letting them know,” the spokeswoman said.

The Welsh Government has set a target for the six authorities to reach a recycling rate of 70 per cent by 2024 to 2025.

A spokesperson for Everyone’s Doing It said: “Over 70 per cent of households in the area including the Vale are recycling and almost 30 per cent of the households sampled are doing the best job possible – showcasing ‘everyone’s doing it’.