WASTE south Essex residents chuck in their bins ends up being shipped to the Netherlands to be burnt to power homes, the Echo can reveal.

Essex County Council does not yet have the technology to convert black bag rubbish processed at the new massive waste plant in Courtauld Road, Basildon, into electricity as was planned, it has emerged.

The plant is under a 12-month pilot before the official launch next summer.

The Echo was allowed into the huge site today to see what happens to the contents of black bags that would previously have gone to landfill.

About 15 per cent of the contents, including metals, paper and plastics is removed and recycled.

The rest is broken down into aggregate material and a type of compost that can be burnt in a special power station to create electricity to power homes.

Echo: Rubbish left at North Wiltshire District Council's depot sent to the Gazette by a reader

RUBBISH: Black bags like this now end up inside the huge plant where they are sorted for recyclables then turned into fuel which currently goes to the Netherlands

In the business plan Essex County Council hopes to sell this on to power stations to create an income stream from the waste.

However, it is currently having to pay to ship it overseas.

A spokesman said: “The technology is not really here yet, but there is a market in the Netherlands where it is shipped to from Tilbury. We have a short-term contract which we have to pay for to dispose of.”

However, it is still cheaper than paying about £120 a tonne to send it to landfill.

The site charges district and borough councils in Essex less than landfill fees for the disposal of household and commercial waste which no longer gets landfilled.

There have been two complaints from neighbouring residents about foul smells being released by the site, but these have been put down to “teething problems” after staff mistakenly left a door open.