A tough new crackdown in Swansea has seen thousands of households in the city warned they are not recycling enough - with some issued with final warning letters.
Swansea Council launched its 'Keep it Out' campaign at the end of February, saying householders who refused to separate out their rubbish could ultimately be fined.
Since then 20,000 households have been monitored, and around 15% - or 3,000 properties - were found to either not be recycling at all, or recycling very little.
An initial letter was sent out to the non-recyclers, explaining how they could "get on board".
But, of those, a number of homes failed to respond to the initial letter or follow-up visits, and 26 households were then sent a final letter, warning they could be issued with a fixed penalty notice.
Meanwhile, an extra 40 tonnes of recyclable waste has been gathered in a fortnight, compared to previous collections.
Hundreds of households have been officially been thanked for their participation after follow-up visits found seven out of 10 homes offered support had started recycling by the next visit.
Mark Thomas, cabinet member for environment and infrastructure management, said: “The response we have had during the first month has been fantastic. Many of the households we have been in touch with were doing very little in terms of recycling or nothing at all.
“Our aim has been to dispel some of the myths around why some residents didn’t recycle.
"The fact that three quarters of those we contacted started recycling on their next collection is a real success. All those households have received a letter thanking them for their efforts.”
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He said issuing fixed penalties was a last resort, but the biggest cost to the council was landfill, so the authority was keen to reduce the amount of black bag waste sent to landfill each week.
