PLANS for a food waste recycling plant in Pontypool have been submitted to the local council.

Waste management company Shanks Group PLC has filed a planning application with Torfaen council for an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant on its New Inn site.

This would be on the former Rechem incinerator plant which closed in 2002.

The AD plant would recycle food waste from households and businesses rather than send it to landfill.

The process converts the food into biogas, which is a renewable source of energy, and would also produce material which can be used as a soil nutrient.

The proposed site could deal with up to 90,000 tonnes a year, which would produce enough energy to power at least 4,000 homes.

If planning permission is given, the plant would be operational by early 2014 and would create around 18 jobs, plus 40 to 50 jobs during construction.

Shanks' UK managing director Ian Goodfellow said: "Sending our rubbish to landfill is not only unacceptable practice these days when we have a variety of new technologies designed to create value from waste, but it also costs local councils and communities increasing amounts of money as landfill tax continues to rise."

He added: "We believe waste should be reused, recycled and recovered to provide valuable resources including recycled energy."

Consultation has already been carried out with local residents through two exhibition days last month.

It will now hold two more public exhibitions to explain the latest proposals in the planning application.

The first will be on March 26 at New Inn Community Hall in Panteg and then the following day at Panteg House in Griffithstown.