Labour spends £20m to sell rubbish to voters

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They hope to work out the most effective way to impose charges on wheelie bins - and who is most likely to pay them.

The Waste and Resources Evidence Strategy will also look for ways to convince householders that if they throw away less rubbish and accept pay-asyouthrow taxes they will be fighting global warming.

The taxes are likely to be brought in alongside charges for using public rubbish dumps.

The four-year strategy, set out in a paper published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs yesterday and costing £5million a year, will replace current Defra waste research projects.

It comes in the wake of a hostile public response to the Government's programme of introducing fortnightly waste collections in an attempt to cut the amount of rubbish sent to landfill.

The Daily Mail's Great Bin Revolt campaign was followed by local elections this spring in which voters punished councils which abandoned weekly bin pick-ups.

A number of the 150 councils that brought in fortnightly collections have since reverted to weekly collections, while ministers have backed away from fortnightly bin pick-ups. The strategy will include judgments and opinions as well as "hard data".

It was greeted by a wave of criticism yesterday.

Tory local government spokesman Eric Pickles said: "The public will be shocked that Labour is spending £20million of taxpayers' money on propaganda to justify the case for additional bin taxes on families.

"Ministers are in denial over the fact that Labour's new rubbish taxes will harm the environment by leading to a surge in flytipping and backyard burning."

Blair Gibbs, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "The Government should not squander any more taxpayers' money on spin and phoney consultations like this."