The Government has ordered Oxfordshire to reduce the amount of rubbish it buries in landfill sites by 75 per cent.

The directive will force the county council to increase recycling and find alternatives to landfill. It could also increase pressure to stop allowing London to bury its waste in Oxfordshire.

About 230,000 tonnes of Oxfordshire rubbish is tipped in landfill sites each year. By 2020, that must be cut to 60,000 tonnes.

About 25 per cent of the county's household rubbish is recycled, but even if this figure rises dramatically, the county council will still have to consider other options, such as incinerators.

A report to the council by environmental consultants Enviros warns: "Oxfordshire must change the way its waste is managed. Landfilling the majority of mixed municipal waste will no longer be possible under new European and national legislation.

"Simply increasing the quantity of materials recycled and composted will not provide sufficient diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill to provide a solution."

Oxfordshire's recycling record is good compared with other counties.

The Redbridge waste centre in Oxford recently became the first in the county to recycle more than 60 per cent of waste received -- one of the best performances in the UK.

Adam Symons, the county council's head of waste management, said: "We have known for some time that landfilling is neither environmentally or economically viable. Oxfordshire recycles more than most. However, what this report tells us is that even if we recycle lots more, we will still have to find some other way of disposing of people's rubbish."

He said alternatives to landfill would not be palatable to everyone.

From April next year, the Government will fine councils for exceeding landfill quotas. One of the options being considered by the county council is incineration but this has angered the Green Party.

"Incineration is not a solution to waste disposal -- merely a way of deferring the problem," said Craig Simmons, an Oxford city and county councillor.

"Very little energy is recovered by incineration, there are continued health concerns about the emissions, and the amount of waste needed to make incinerators viable means that re-use and recycling become financially less attractive."

The Greens say that instead, people should be encouraged to reduce the amount of waste they generate.

The Oxford Mail revealed in May that the county council receives £93,000 a year for allowing a 30-wagon train to deliver containers of rubbish from London to Sutton Courtenay every day. This contract expires in 2016, when London is expected to have found ways to end the need to send waste to nearby counties, such as Oxfordshire.

County councillor Anne Purse, the executive member for sustainable development, said: "Although we will have to stop landfilling, recycling will still be extremely important. The more we recycle, the less will have to be disposed of in some other way."