The government's new Waste Strategy, to be revealed by Environment Secretary David Miliband, will outline how it plans to meet tough European Union rules on reducing the amount of rubbish buried in landfill sites in England.

A government consultation document last year proposed increasing the level of recycling and composting of household waste from 27 percent today to 40 percent by 2010 and 50 percent by 2020.

Britain is near the bottom of Europe's recycling league, with only Greece and Portugal recycling less, according to figures from the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Green Alliance.

Campaigners want the government to introduce a rising level of charges for rubbish collections to encourage householders to recycle more.

Last year's consultation found strong support among the public for some form of variable charging, but there was also concern that extra costs could lead to a rise in fly-tipping.

Bradshaw told the BBC that the "important thing for the government is that we increase our recycling levels and reduce our dependency on landfill which is an environmental disaster if we don't do that".

"It wastes things that could be recycled or used to create energy and it creates methane," he said.

But the minister said collection times should remain the responsibility of local authorities.

Moves by some councils to switch to fortnightly collections has caused widespread anger among householders.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth said there should be legally binding recycling targets for businesses.