Last month the Telegraph revealed councils are to be banned from imposing draconian fines on householders who fall foul of complex waste and recycling rules.
Councils will no longer be able to fine people for failing to close a bin lid; leaving bin bags next to a bin; putting a bin out on the wrong day; failing to move it back inside the boundary of a property; or making minor mistakes with recycling.
Only the most severe cases of fly-tipping will be subject to penalties.
The waste review could also include measures to cut cardboard and polystyrene packaging around children's toys, which quickly overwhelms household bins on birthdays and at Christmas.
A voluntary code on cutting packaging around food to children?s toys is to be extended. If the move proves successful, it will be rolled out to include to other household items, like mobile phones and electrical goods like microwaves and toasters.
Mrs Spelman has invited trade bodies and toy makers to join a working group to cut down on waste around toys.
Officials have already started talks with the British Toy and Hobby Association about building up some figures on the scale of the problem.
Argos, one of the UK?s biggest toy retailers, and the manufacturer Hasbro have also expressed an interest in cutting down on packaging.
A Whitehall source told The Daily Telegraph: ?We hope that by working with industry, we can work to reduce some of the unnecessary cardboard and plastic packaging around toys which parents will be all too familiar with.
?They can still be wrapped protectively, but in a way that means not so much packaging ends up going in the bin once it's unwrapped. And that's ultimately better for the environment.?
Britain generates 29 million tons of household waste every year, of which more than 20 per cent ? six million tons ? is classified as packaging.
Of the six million tons, 30 per cent is estimated to come from toys, mobile phones, computers and other appliances.
Supermarkets have already signed up to a voluntary agreement to cut down on packaging around groceries such as drinks, biscuits and salads.
That deal ? called the Courtauld Commitment ? expires next year ? and ministers had been hoping to widen it to household goods.
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