A committee of MPs has criticised the government's failure to implement tougher policies on recycling and waste reduction.

The cross party environmental audit committee said that progress towards meeting international targets is "depressingly slow".

"Projections based on the current rates of performance improvement indicate that we will not come close to meeting any of the national targets set for recycling or recovery.

"Under the current set of policies, the targets set for 2015 and 2020 in particular will be missed by a wide margin," said their report.

Local authorities are struggling to meet their targets and are being hampered by cash shortages and a lack of clear guidance, it said.

"We are extremely concerned that the measures taken to date do not reflect the urgency of the need for improvement."

The UK's "waste mountain" is growing at a rate of 3.4 per cent since 1996/97, and no target has been set for waste minimisation.

"There is some evidence of good progress diverting waste from landfill on the part of industry and commerce but in the absence of up to date statistics it is not possible to be certain," said the committee.

Chancellor Gordon Brown was also urged to increase the rate of the Landfill Tax more steeply than is currently proposed.

"The Treasury's behaviour over the Landfill Tax, and the absence of any further environmental measures in the Budget, reinforces our view, expressed in our report on the Pre-Budget Report 2002, that it remains timid in its use of fiscal instruments to tackle environmental issues."