Plans are in motion for a £150 million scheme in Swadlincote to turn waste into products which can be used to create clean energy powering thousands of homes.

The proposed Swadlincote Resource Recovery Park would be built on land just to the south of sewage treatment works in woodland next to the town's £10 million Willshee's base.

Early plans for a "scoping opinion" far ahead of a formal application have now been filed to South Derbyshire District Council.

The plan shows the site would include an energy recovery facility and an aggregate recovery facility.

A website for the scheme had been compiled by R&P Clean Power Ltd, which is registered to an accountancy firm in Stratford-upon-Avon.

It details that the scheme aims to "energise Swadlincote", using thousands of tonnes of recycled waste – collected and refined by Willshee's – to generate electricity.

The firm says the project would be "a hub for post-recycled waste recovery, recycling, reuse and green energy".

It says: "The new Energy Recovery Facility will process some 230,000 tonnes of post-recycled waste, generating low-carbon electricity to power thousands of homes each year.

"It can also supply a green source of electricity and heat to businesses on the adjacent Appleby Glade Industrial Estate.

"This is an opportunity to increase regional energy independence and diversify from variable sources of green energy – wind and solar.

"The Swadlincote Resource Recovery Park means we will divert up to 98 per cent of the waste away from landfill."

It also says diverting the waste from landfill also avoids the risk of harmful methane gases generated when the waste deteriorates.

The website says the scheme could involve upwards of £150 million in private sector investment, with 39 full-time jobs set to be created and a further 180 jobs during the construction phase.

It details that the reuse of materials recycled by Willshee's would be used to create low-carbon energy "closing the loop on effectively managing waste through recycling and reuse".

Willshee's would provide 70 per cent of the reused waste, with further waste provided by other sites in Derbyshire.

The website says there is also the potential to process "sewage sludge" from the water treatment plant nearby, significantly reducing vehicle movements from the area which currently take this waste to Birmingham.

Recycled and treated waste would be heated – not burned – to power a steam turbine, generating electricity.

There would be a large chimney as part of the proposed site from which "discharge" would be released.

The firm says the "discharge" would be "extensively cleaned and scrubbed to a level which is better than the Environmental Agency allowable standards".

It says: "This ensures that what is released into the atmosphere is safe and will not harm the local environment or anyone's health."