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The Local Government Association (LGA) said that the 2007/08 provisional waste statistics issued by Defra last week (8 May) were "very encouraging", but there was an "inescapable need" to do more.

Defra's figures showed household recycling rates increased by two percentage points to 33%, while the amount of rubbish sent to landfill fell by 5% to 16 million tonnes.

LGA environment board chairman Paul Bettison said residents and local councils deserved credit for "substantially improving" the UK's performance on waste and recycling over recent years.

However, he warned that Britain was still the "dustbin of Europe" and threw away more rubbish into landfill than any other EU country. Other countries also recycle up to twice as much.

"Councils and council tax payers are still facing fines of up to £3bn if we do not dramatically reduce the amount of waste thrown into landfill. It is vital we look at alternatives to the status quo to deliver an ever better deal for the taxpayer," he said.

Defra's figures are based on information supplied by local authorities to WasteDataFlow. They include the second quarter of the financial year from July to September 2007.

Estimates for October to December 2007 will be published in August 2008. Final figures will be released by National Statistics in November.