While Clackmannan's recycling rate is 45 per cent, Midlothian's figure is just 3.9 per cent, according to figures published yesterday by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).

The 25 per cent target was set by the Executive three years ago as an integral part of its waste strategy.

The rolling 12-month average to June this year

Welcoming the improvement as "from pathetic to poor", Shiona Baird, a Green MSP, told a parliamentary debate: "Those in Dalkeith or Loanhead are not less likely to recycle than those in Clackmannan if they had the chance. What is the Executive doing to chivvy some councils along?"

Reasons given for poor recycling performance by local authorities include a high percentage of tenements, or, at the opposite extreme, of remote rural areas.

Claims were also made during the debate on the Executive's waste strategy that fortnightly collections deterred householders and encouraged flytipping, while 20 per cent of the general public "simply don't bother keeping recyclable waste separate".

Ms Baird said: "Councils with good recycling rates, such as Clackmannanshire, prioritise kerbside collection, with strong community groups leading the way."

That, she said, must be encourage while other rules were relaxed. "Community waste enterprises are being charged too much for their annual licences to operate," she added. "We must avoid making recycling difficult and expensive."

However, Ms Baird warned that "mountains of rubbish" continue to grow. These included landfill sites into which more than 1.8 million tonnes of Scottish waste poured last year, a 3 per cent increase in 12 months.

That total made Executive targets of reducing landfill to 1.32 million tonnes by 2010 and 620,000 tonnes by 2020 unlikely, she suggested.

"If we are creating ever greater amounts of waste, we are simply running to stand still," she said.

Local authorities collect well over three million tonnes of total waste, most of it from households, with the average home producing more than one tonne of refuse a year.

Ross Finnie, the environment minister, said in announcing the SEPA figures to Holyrood that householders had responded positively to encouragement to recycle, but accepted that much more must be done.

He told MSPs: "The Executive, local authorities and householders must work together to reach our ambitious 30 per cent recycling target for 2008."

As part of that, a pilot project to encourage more effective collection from tenements will start early next year.

But businesses, which account for more than 80 per cent of all waste, face more stick than carrot to persuade them to improve, he added.

"We operate the polluter pays principle," Mr Finnie said.

"Businesses must take responsibility for the waste they produce."

Richard Lochhead, of the SNP, and the Conservatives' John Scott admitted that progress was being made, but compared Scotland's municipal recycling unfavourably with Sweden, where 39 per cent of waste is recycled and Austria (58 per cent).

But Labour MSP Sarah Boyack, convener of the parliamentary environment and rural development committee, said: "We started with one of the worst records in Europe. The possibility of European Union fines for not meeting targets probably concentrated the Executive's mind, but going from 6 per cent to 25 per cent is quite an achievement."

The four Rs must be encouraged to waste fewer resources, she added - reduce waste, reuse items, such as kitchen white goods, recycle and recover.