The penalties for not meeting targets will be large

Newcastle City Council has the target of 18% of household waste recycled or composted by 2005/2006, after meeting its 2003/2004 target of 10%.

On Wednesday, the council is to look at a range of plans to help meet targets.

Council lead member for the environment Councillor Wendy Taylor said a £1,000 fine would only be considered as a last resort for persistent offenders.

Councillor Taylor said: "We are just trying to get more people to participate at the moment.

Large penalties

"It's probably less than 50% across the city and it is crucial that we encourage everyone to take part."

She said they needed to encourage people to recycle, even if it was only small amounts, because the penalties for not doing so in the future were going to be so large.

She said other schemes such as offering incentives to people who regularly recycled would be considered alongside the fines.

She said the fines would be looked at if every other approach failed.

She said: "Fining people is going to be very much a last resort. Firstly we want to deal with the education side."