A deal has been struck to revolutionise treatment of the district's household waste using a cutting-edge superheating method in a plant to be built in Bradford.

It makes the district the first in Yorkshire to use the autoclave method for municipal waste.

Yesterday the two companies behind the Bradford Council contract, which will be signed shortly, were revealed. One is Waddington Recycling, based off Leeds Road, Bradford, and the other is Yorwaste, in North Yorkshire.

Together they will form a partnership to deliver a five-year £35 million contract to the Council, diverting 75,000 tonnes of biodegradable waste a year from landfill.

Waddington is an expert in autoclaving and already deals with a variety of waste products at its Buck Street site. The company also has planning permission to build a new £20 million autoclave plant on an adjacent site. This would need to be operational from April 2009 and would create 50 jobs.

Yorwaste is owned jointly by North Yorkshire County Council and the City of York Council. It deals with recycling and waste management.

Following yesterday's executive and full council meetings, contingency plans to also award a contract to the company behind an existing energy-from-waste incinerator in Huddersfield were scrapped.

The Liberal Democrat amendment from group leader Councillor Jeanette Sunderland also called for a detailed appraisal of odour and emission control to be completed before the contract is finalised.

It received the backing of the Conservative and Green councillors. Labour and the British National Party voted against it, with Labour saying it would be unlawful for them to vote for an issue for which they had only received the paperwork 24 hours before.

The bulk of the district's waste would be heat-treated at the purpose-built plant. Then recyclable materials, such as metals and plastic, would be removed. The majority of the remaining fibres would then be sold on to be used for compost, as well as recycled paper and cardboard products.

Any residue - about 20 per cent - would be sent to landfill. It is expected that this method will increase the Council's recycling figures from 23 per cent to more than 50 per cent.

Mark Waddington, chairman of Waddington Recycling, said: "Bradford is taking a very, very brave step in terms of something that is fairly new - but it's only new in terms of what it is doing to waste. It is old technology that we have used since the 1950s, so it's not new to us. But it is new for the waste game.

"Bradford could see that a company like ours, which has used the technology, is confident that we know what we are doing."

The Council is awarding this short-term contract as it needs to reduce the amount of waste it sends to landfill by 2020 or face fines of nearly £13 million a year. A long-term 25-year £400 million contract is also on the cards.

This includes building a treatment plant and the companies behind the autoclave partnership are expected to bid for this longer contract.

e-mail: jo.winrow@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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