Residents in Monmouthshire are to be limited to putting out two bin bags of rubbish a fortnight in an attempt to make them recycle more.
The council's non-recyclables limit is the strictest in Wales as it aims for recycling rates of 58% by 2015/16.
More than 1,000 people have signed an online petition against the limit.
But the authority says it can afford neither to keep paying millions of pounds in landfill tax, nor fines for missing recycling targets.
"Start Quote
End Quote Bryan Jones Monmouthshire councilWe bluntly have got to save about £4m in this year - and we've got to find it where we can"
It believes up to 70% of what is thrown away is recyclable or food waste.
"Monmouthshire has said it's making a priority of education and social services, and we bluntly have got to save about £4m in this year - and we've got to find it where we can," councillor Bryan Jones told the BBC's Eye on Wales programme.
"So for us to be throwing £3m into landfill every year - it's plainly a total waste of money.
"By 2015/16 we need to increase our recycling to 58% and if we miss those targets, we have the consequences of having a fine - for every 1%, about £100,000 - so it's significant."
In April, plans for clear bin bags that would have allowed the council to check on what people throw away were scrapped following opposition.
Spending squeezeIt had hoped to use the bags instead of black ones to encourage recycling, hailing it as a UK first.
With councils warning of further service cuts in the latest spending squeeze, Welsh Local Government Association environment spokesman Andrew Morgan said more areas could face restrictions in the future.
"Start Quote
End Quote Michelle Drew Caldicot residentSometimes we're up to 12 bags with me and the four children - to be honest, it's a nightmare"
"Local authorities have to look at every possible avenue to save money and they will be looking at everything possible to try and get more people to recycle because ultimately the landfill tax continues to rise every single year," he said.
"That means just burying the waste at the current level just gets more and more expensive every single year."
According to the council's website: "Most councils throughout the UK already limit the amount of waste their residents can put out for collection".
It will also allow residents to put out two extra bags on the first collection day after Christmas, although householders are told: "You will need to provide these bags yourself".
Waste from Wealth, a report issued this month by the Local Government Association, representing English councils, said 43% of household waste in England was now recycled, up from 13 per cent in 2001/02.
It said the UK was on its way to hitting the EU target of recycling 50% by 2020 and said: "All indications show that there is not a clamour for a return to the days of a weekly collection of a single bin".
It quotes incentives used by various councils, such as Wokingham, whose recycling rewards scheme gives residents points to be used to get vouchers to spend in local shops, cinemas and sports facilities.
But among its recommendations to the government is one that kerbside collection arrangements should be left as a "a local deal between councils and their residents and are not a proper subject of national policies".
Mother-of-four Michelle Drew, from Caldicot, does not recycle and regularly puts out seven or more black bin bags for landfill.
She told the programme that she had neither the space nor time for recycling and admitted she was worried about getting her rubbish down to just two bags.
"Sometimes we're up to 12 bags with me and the four children - to be honest, it's a nightmare," she said.
"I'm just finding it too hard. I did used to recycle, but it's just becoming too much of an issue with the bags.
"If we had bins for each bags, it would be so much easier."
Eye on Wales is on Sunday at 13:30 BST on BBC Radio Wales and on iPlayer after the show.
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