A waste management company has struck a deal to turn household waste into power for 4,000 homes in the region.

County Durham company Premier Waste Management, working with Northern Electric (NEDL) and CLP Envirogas, has installed a network of gas wells at its Todhills landfill site, near Willington, County Durham, which will be used to generate power.

Renewable energy specialists CLP Envirogas will use sunction to pipe out methane gas, from bacteria produced by biodegradable rubbish buried at the site before it closed in 2007, and pipe it to two generators on the edge of the site, each producing about 1,000kw of electricity.

This will be sent to NEDL distribution system for use in homes across the region.

Tony Hitchens, marketing manager at Aykley Headsbased Premier, said: “The whole reason is to make sure we get some value out of the methane produced by landfill in the North-East.

“You need a connection into the national grid to distribute it, so we are pleased that the site has been able to secure that and it is suitable to produce electricity.

“CLP came in because they are experts in taking this gas and burning it in engines that can produce power.

“You can’t do this until the landfill is full and has been fully capped.”

It is the fifth such site that Premier has developed in County Durham, generating revenue from the sale of the electricity to NEDL.

Michael Curry, environmental systems manager for Premier, said: “The capping and restoration programme in Todhills is an extremely valuable method of generating renewable energy, as emissions from the generators are more than 20 times less harmful to the atmosphere than landfill gas itself, so this process will be improving local emissions significantly, which is great for our region.”

Harry Wyndham, chief executive of CLP, said: “Every kilowatt of electricity generated at Todhills will replace electricity generated by more polluting, conventional, fossil- fuel powered facilities.”

The biodegradable rubbish includes food leftovers, such as potato peelings, and waste paper and cardboard.