Lambeth Council has denied it has controversial plans to burn waste rather than recycle it.
An email to the borough's councillors from the town hall's waste management department, seen by the Streatham Guardian, shows the council is considering the use of an incinerator to burn rubbish as part of its new 20 year waste strategy.
The email suggests incineration - which has the environmental benefits of producing heat and electricity - could replace recycling.
It states: "The key issue (of the waste strategy) will be whether Lambeth should aim to meet the national and EU recycling target of 50 per cent by 2020 or aim for a minimal recycling, high incineration policy which could deliver the equivalent environmental benefits."
But the council has denied incineration would mean recycling rates were reduced, saying only rubbish that could not be recycled would be burnt.
However an opposition councillor said he was suspicious of the "secrecy" surrounding the incineration plans.
While the council is currently consulting on its waste strategy, no questions in its online survey relate to incineration, nor is it mentioned in an article about the waste plan in the council newspaper Lambeth Life.
Lib Dem councillor Julian Heather said: "Incinerating waste rather than recycling is highly controversial, and if it is something being considered by the council it must be out in the open from the start.
"I am concerned about the risks to the environment emissions from incinerators pose."
He said recycling was clearly better for the environment as it uses up less natural resources, and created a culture of less waste.
A Lambeth Council spokesman said there was categorically no "secret plan" about incineration.
He said: “We are 100 per cent committed to recycling and want to make sure we collect and manage the borough’s waste in the way that is most environmentally friendly and cost effective, and recycling is of course absolutely central to this.
"We are certainly not proposing to incinerate the material that residents put out for recycling, we want to increase recycling levels."
He said Lambeth was part of the Western Riverside Waste Authority (WRWA) which has power over the direction of non recycled or composted waste.
He said as part of its strategy to meet Government targets and contribute to environmental sustainability, WRWA is building an “energy from waste” facility which can be channeled into the power grid, which is significantly more environmentally friendly than landfilling the waste Lambeth does not recycle.
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