Agence France-Presse

The Philippine capital may soon have a power plant that uses thousands of daily tons of garbage as fuel, the head of the agency overseeing the area said Tuesday.

It will use methane gas produced by rotting rubbish, will hopefully reduce the city's large volume of waste and lessen its dependence on landfills, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chief Bayani Fernando said.

"Through this project, we are planning to solve the problem of having huge amounts of garbage and free up space on landfills which can hardly accommodate the city's waste," said Fernando.

He told reporters he is communicating with prospective investors willing to put their resources into building the methane gas plant. Fernando did not specify who these investors are or how much the project will cost.

The Philippine capital, which generates an estimated 10,000 tons of solid waste a day, would see its garbage volume reduced by as much as 60 percent once the power plant is operational, Fernando added.

Aside from producing renewable energy, the plant's by-products could be used as fertilizer, Fernando added.

The huge amount of garbage produced by Metropolitan Manila has become a major concern as most of the nearby landfills are already filled beyond their capacity, endangering the health of nearby communities.

In 2000, about 200 people were killed when a mountain of garbage collapsed at one of the landfills in a suburb of Manila.