Gloucestershire County Council has agreed how it will judge the bids to build its proposed new residual waste facility, putting environmental friendliness as one of its main priorities.

  The evaluation framework as it is known, shows how the county council will decide on bids that come in from the waste industry to provide new facilities for Gloucestershire's household residual waste - the real rubbish left over when we have reduced, recycled or composted as much as possible.

Currently the county's real rubbish is buried in landfill creating harmful green house gases. The county council also has to pay heavy taxes and possible penalties on every tonne of rubbish that goes to landfill.   The county council has no preferred technology and has made no decision on sites. Deciding on the technology and location or locations will take approximately two years.

Cllr Stan Waddington, Gloucestershire County Council cabinet member for the environment said, "It's important that waste companies know what the council wants.  We need a solution which taxpayers can afford, which is reliable, flexible and which is also environmentally friendly and safe.  “All parties at the County Council have supported this way forward in a recent motion to council.  Damage caused to the environment and the spiralling cost in fines and taxes means landfill is no longer an option. Even when the county council reaches its target of at least 60 per cent recycling and composting by 2020, the remaining 40 per cent still has to be managed. New waste facilities will let us do so cleanly and effectively."

The council will now officially begin the procurement process to provide environmentally sustainable and cost effective waste facilities for Gloucestershire.  A notice to potential bidders will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in the New Year.

The project is part of the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy, which has been adopted by the county council, which is responsible for disposing of the county's waste, and the six district councils, which are responsible for collecting it.

Last week, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has awarded the county council with £92 million in private finance initiative (PFI) credits, rising to £171 million over the life of the contract.