THOUSANDS of tonnes of household waste is to be recycled or turned into compost instead of being buried.

A £1m pilot scheme in County Durham will see a solid waste aerobic digester set up to handle up to 5,000 tonnes of rubbish every year.

It could lead to a big reduction in the amount of waste sent to landfill sites and help achieve the Government's target of recycling 60 per cent of rubbish.

The scheme is being developed by the County Durham Environmental Trust, the Durham County Waste Management Company, Newcastle University and digester makers CPS Civic.

Recyclable materials such as aluminium and glass will be removed and the rest will be fed into the digester, which will provide the best conditions for composting.

The trust is funding the project with money from the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme.

Its chairman John Wearmouth said: "A successful outcome will help local authorities to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and enable materials to be recycled or reused."

A pilot scheme is planned for November. If it works well, a bigger plant or series of smaller plants could be built to compost more than 50,000 tonnes of waste.