Julian Kirby, waste campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: "The government has spent a year reviewing its approach to rubbish - at vast public expense - and all it's managed to do is reduce its ambition, recycle old ideas and dump its commitment to a zero waste economy.
"Ministers should be helping cut waste and boost recycling - but they've produced a half-hearted document that takes waste policy back in time.
"Cash-strapped councils will be relieved ministers have ditched ludicrous proposals to force them to provide weekly bin rounds - fortnightly collections are cheaper, encourage recycling and are popular with householders.
"The roll-out of weekly food waste pick-ups will help make use of the nation's food scraps - something we've been backing for many years.
"We can't afford to keep burying and burning our waste - David Cameron should sort out this mess with a goal to halve the rubbish England throws away by the end of the decade."