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The Conservatives have set out plans to offer financial incentives encouraging households to recycle their waste.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne on Wednesday announced that a Conservative government would introduce an American-style system to reward households with vouchers worth up to £30 a month.
He told the Green Alliance environmental group: "Right now, the UK has one of the lowest recycling rates in Europe.
"The government's approach is an old-fashioned one: use the threat of fines and punitive taxation to force people to recycle.
"We've all seen how unpopular this heavy-handed approach has been with the public.
"Instead of using sticks, we can use carrots. There is also an equity dimension. While the poorest households were previously the least likely to recycle, as soon as they started receiving a financial incentive for recycling, they typically become amongst the most likely to recycle."
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said similar schemes worked "incredibly well" in the US.
"I think people are deeply resentful of pay-as-you-throw taxes," he said.
"And that whole direction the government's moved in of fining people who don't recycle, snooping on their bins, forcing councils into fortnightly collections and so on, has been deeply unpopular.
"People don't actually respond as well to threats as they do to carrots."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd