COUNCILS could be left to foot the bill for Government plans to ban food, paper and glass from landfill, it has been warned.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn set out plans to dramatically reduce the amount buried in dumps, raising the prospect of homes being issued with even more colour-coded dustbins. Some have predicted the traditional black bin could disappear altogether.

But the Local Government Association warned town halls should not bear the financial brunt of the proposals which would impose landfill restrictions on textiles, metals, wood, garden waste, plastics, and electrical and electronic equipment.

LGA chairman Gary Porter said: "They must not create a situation where every householder in the country is forced to have a separate bin for their food waste.

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"It must be up to councils, working with their residents, to find the best ways of cutting rubbish going to landfill. Councils want to throw less rubbish in the ground because it is good for the environment and good for the council taxpayer.

"While councils are paying ever more to the Government in landfill tax, they cannot also be expected to pay for building and running new plants to sort banned materials and process food waste."

Westcountry councils already offer a wide range of recycling, but services can vary from district to district.

This month East Devon District Council is changing some of its collections as part of plans to increase the household rubbish it recycles and composts from 23 per cent to 50 per cent. It includes collecting food waste and recycling crates every week, but landfill rubbish once a fortnight.

In Cornwall, services are still carried out under the old district boundaries, with some variations.

Mr Benn insisted that most people would support moves to reduce the amount of rubbish that goes to landfill.

"The vast majority of people will say 'we don't want this stuff to go into landfill, we want to play our part so we can get value, help reduce costs, save the planet and reuse the materials'. It makes sense whichever way you look at it."

The UK has European targets for cutting the amount of biodegradable waste that ends up in landfill to 50 per cent of 1995 levels by 2013. Other EU directives aim to reduce the amount of batteries and electrical and "white goods", such as fridges, ending up in the ground.

Mr Benn added: "We have made progress improving recycling, but we can go further. We're still chucking into landfill plastic and paper and bottles and cans, food waste. It's wasting us money because councils have to pay the landfill levy. In the case of food waste, it's producing methane, which is a greenhouse gas."

The minister is an enthusiast for turning waste into energy in incinerators, which have attracted widespread opposition in Westcountry communities where they have been proposed.

Currently councils have to go through the courts to fine people who break refuse rules, a spokesman said, and the expense would make it unlikely for the penalties to be more widely used.

Tory shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert said of Mr Benn's plans: "This is not a zero-waste policy – this is a zero-ambition policy. We need to divert waste from landfill and more food waste should be used to generate energy, but the way to achieve that is to encourage households by rewarding them to recycle."