The government has opted against a national collection charge to punish householders who do not recycle rubbish.

In response to a Cabinet Office paper published last November, the environment secretary Margaret Beckett said she wanted to change Britain's attitude to rubbish.

Ministers want to reduce the annual rate of household waste growth from three per cent to two per cent by the end of 2006.

The government also wants half of all homes to be composting by 2006 and hopes to get one in three local authorities to use recycling incentives by 2005/06.