Government guidelines for councils have been attacked by Reading Councillors after Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs suggested that food waste should be collected weekly.

Steve Waite, lead councillor for the environment until next May responded to the report by saying: "What a load of garbage. As is often the case the people who recommend these things don't think them through. The real problem is what do you do with the food waste once you collect it. They don't take into account councils stupid enough to sign themselves up for 25 year PFI contracts which don't include comprehensive recycling facilities.

"Our approach in Reading is simple, as long as we don't recycle food waste we can charge businesses more because it goes to landfill. Businesses will then use cheaper private contractors instead and then it doesn't appear on our statistics. The same amount goes to landfill, but it's not our problem. Figure-Fiddling-tastic."