Herts County Council is searching for a firm to deal with the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste that currently go into landfill.

At this stage a site for the facility has not been decided upon, though the council was required to specify a 'reference' location in its application to the government for funding and it chose Hatfield.

A number of potential sites have been identified, including five in Dacorum, but a final decision will be taken by the company awarded the tender.

Possible uses for sites include incineration, processing construction waste, composting or sorting and recycling.

Six companies will now be submitting proposals on how to deal with the county's waste in a 25-year contract worth £800million.

The contractor is expected to be appointed in 2011 with the treatment facility up and running in 2015, but there will be further public consultation and planning permission will be required.

Derrick Ashley, cabinet waste chief at the county council, said: "Despite excellent recycling efforts around the county, there is still non-recycleable waste that currently goes to landfill.

"While we are only in the early days of deciding how we will deal with this residual waste in the future, we are pleased that so many bidders have shown interest at this initial stage.

"We feel we have a strong list of potential companies and consortia to work with and look forward to receiving their outline submissions in September."

The county currently recycles 44 per cent of its domestic waste, which leaves around 360,000 tonnes destined for landfill.

Household rubbish makes up just a quarter of the waste produced by Herts alongside millions of tonnes of commercial, construction and building waste.

A tax is levied on each tonne of waste sent to landfill, which is prompting the council's efforts to find alternatives.