A massive new multi-million-pound waste treatment plant could be built in Bradford to stop the district missing recycling targets.

The plant could come as part of a radical overhaul by environment bosses of the way the district deals with its rubbish.

Dumping it in the ground is becoming too expensive, and in an effort to slash crippling costs a range of new measures are being considered, including the privatisation of wheelie bin collections and the controversial building of either a waste treatment plant or incinerator in the district.

Council officers have also held talks with Leeds and Calderdale about creating a joint waste management service.

The plans were unveiled at the Council's Environment and Waste Management Improvement Committee meeting this week, as new figures show Bradford is continuing to lag behind both its own targets and the national average for recycling.

New figures released by the Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs show Bradford recycled just 17 per cent of its waste compared with a national average of 22 per cent for 2004/05.

And the Council's head of environmental services Richard Wixey told this week's meeting that the authority was set to recycle 21 per cent of waste in 2005/06 - missing its own target of 25 per cent.

In ten years time Bradford will have to recycle a third of its waste, and Mr Wixey told councillors that action was needed now if the district was to stand a chance of hitting the targets.

The authority is now searching for a private company to take on a £440 million contract over the next 25 years which could include privatising bin collections as well as building the new waste plant.

Around 90 per cent of all of the rubbish generated is currently buried at landfill sites in Wellbeck and Skipton.

However the cost is expected to rise from £30 a tonne to £50 a tonne over the next five years because of landfill tax increases.

Mr Wixey said the scope of the £440m contract was being left open to the companies which would be tendering bids.

He said: "It might be that a company wants to take over waste collection but councillors might decide that this is a too public-facing service and it is too important to give up for such a long period."

The Council's current landfill contracts expire in 2008 and Mr Wixey said the authority needed both a long and short-term solution as any treatment plant would not be operational within three years.

A municipal waste strategy has been produced which will be given to potential bidders.

It currently rules out the use of incineration as a method of dealing with the waste following a decision by the Council's executive three years ago.

However the council's waste management improvement committee has called for this decision to be reviewed. Coun Andrew Mallinson (Con, Craven) said: "I think the council is wrong to have tied our hands behind our back by ruling out incineration.

"I think if you asked most people if they wanted an incinerator they would so no, but it would be different if you explained to them the problems we are going to face and how much it is going to cost them as rate payers if we carry on with landfill."

The alternatives put forward in the Council's strategy are for a mechanical or biological plant which treats the waste or autoclaving technology which steams bio degrable waste away to allow metal and glass to be recycled.

Coun Martin Love, the leader of Bradford Council's green group has called for the authority to continue to rule out incineration as a way of dealing with waste.

He said: "The problem with incineration is you have no idea what is going in so you have no idea what is going to come out. There are huge concerns about the pollutants it creates in areas where incinerators are used.

"Bradford's problem with recycling is that we were slow getting started. But it is improving now."