Big penalties if you fail to recycle... big rewards if you do

Under the pay-as-you-throw schemes which would be introduced by local authorities, families who cannot be bothered to recycle could be hit by £50 penalties which will fund rebates for homeowners going green.

According to the Conservatives, 68 councils including Bexley, Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Harrow and Southwark have i nvested in microchips which could be used to police schemes.

Following the "bin revolt" in the local elections, town halls will be expected to provide weekly collections for leftover food waste and to give local people a greater say on whether to move to fortnightly pickups for other waste.

A clampdown on fly-tipping and measures to stop people dumping waste in their neighbours' bins will be introduced.

Environment Secretary David Miliband shied away from introducing a nationwide waste charge and is leaving it up to town halls to decide whether to bring in local schemes to offer financial incentives to recycle.

He told MPs today: "More and more people are concerned about living in a throwaway culture.

"Local authorities will be able to decide whether or not to develop schemes that reward in cash people who reduce waste and recycle at the expense of those who don't."

But Tor y local government spokesman Eric Pickles said today: "These half-baked plans could lead to real waste wars. Forget lock up your daughters, it will be lock up your bins and beware of midnight raids by fly-tippers. These stealth taxes will turn local councils into Whitehall's tax collector."

Schemes could include:

The Seattle model where households-choose a particular size of bin at the start of the year and are charged accordingly. It could be a standard 32 gallon bin, a 19 gallon "minican" or a 12 gallon "microcan".

The Treviso system where households subscribe to a particular frequency of collections, or where electronic chips are used to record when bins are emptied.

Councils would decide on the scale of any incentives.

The "carrot and stick" plans are part of a wider package aimed at revolutionising the way Britain deals with its waste. Other measures could include banning free plastic shopping bags to reduce the number used by 25 per cent by next year, and slashing junk mail.

In a controversial move, Mr Miliband backed incinerators to burn rather than bury any waste that can not be recycled.

The financial reward schemes are most likely to be introduced outside inner cities as they are likely to be hard to run in districts with many flats.

"Householders would pay according to the amount of non-recyclable waste they threw away over the year," according to the Government's waste strategy published by Mr Miliband today. It will also be important to consider means for preventing evasion of the incentive by disposing of waste in others' bins. Options include using pre-paid sacks or bins or offering residents lockable wheelie bins."

Councils which opt for recycling programmes will be expected to distribute at least five bins to each household, including one for food waste to be collected weekly. Restrictions will be introduced to stop them using the schemes to raise extra funds.

Town halls would also be expected to take into account the size of families and ensure that some groups are exempt or have some relief from the new schemes.

These could include households receiving council tax benefit, families with young children who tend to produce more waste because of nappies, and people who may struggle to adjust to the new requirements such as the elderly and disabled.

Ministers estimate that the average annual cost of waste collection in England is about £100 per household but that overseas schemes with penalties and incentives typically charge between £35 and £50.

They will also warn that council tax bills could rise if people fail to go green as they introduce sharply increasing landfill taxes under EU regulations.

England currently disposes of 63 per cent of its waste by landfill, a figure exceeded only in Greece and Portugal among EU nations.