Householders face increases in their council tax if they refuse to cooperate in recycling domestic waste, according to proposals announced yesterday.
Every home in the country is to have a kerbside collection for recyclable materials; the aim is to have 50% of the country composting its own food waste by 2005.
Local authorities will be allowed to offer residents cuts in their council tax if they regularly recycle - or alternatively increase the tax levied on those who refuse.
The government is also raising landfill tax from the pre sent£13 a tonne to £35 a tonne in order to force local authorities to reduce waste and recycle - but is phasing the increase over nine years to give time for authorities and industry to adjust.
Some of the landfill tax will be diverted to encourage recycling. At present 20% of the tax is put towards local environment schemes but there has been widespread criticism of the way in which the money has been used.
The chancellor has decided to reform this scheme to put £100m of the money a year towards recycling.
The landfill tax was rising at £1 per tonne a year, and has reached £13. The chancellor has decided to increase to increase this by £3 a year from 2005 until it reaches £35. This is the amount other EU countries have discovered is the level at which recycling takes off as an alternative industry to waste dumping.
The rise in landfill tax has been brought about because of a crisis over the failure of the UK to reach European statutory targets for recycling. Recycling is presently running at 12%, less than half that of most European countries; it needs to reach 50% by 2015.
Fines of £180m a year could be levied by the EU against the UK unless targets are met.
The simultaneous publication of the government's waste strategy is designed to stimulate new recycling industries.
A government quango already set up to stimulate markets for recycled material was delighted with the £35 per tonne penalty looming ahead for those who do not take reducing waste seriously.
Jennie Price, WRAP's chief executive, said. "This is a tax business does not have to pay. If a business reduces and recy cles its rubbish instead of tipping it into a hole in the ground, it won't pay landfill tax. It's a simple as that."
Ms Price said the chancellor's statement would send a clear signal that Britain must prepare for a big change in the way it handles the 100m tonnes of waste produced each year by homes, businesses and factories. It is currently increasing by 3% a year.
"The time frame for the proposed increases gives industry a chance to gear up, but it also sends a warning that Britain cannot continue to cling to its dismal 'business as usual' record on recycling," said Ms Price, adding that WRAP's work on finding imaginative, high-value uses for recycled materials was aimed at securing stable markets for millions of tonnes of what until now might have been regarded as "rubbish".
Mike Childs of Friends of the Earth also welcomed the changes, but said the government had ducked the issue of incinerating waste.
He said: "What has worried the public most is the idea of a new generation of waste incinerators across the country to burn waste and the potential pollution from these. The chancellor and the waste strategy are silent on this issue - the government does not appear to have a policy. This is not good enough."