An environmental group has praised plans to make a landfill site greener by converting natural gas into electricity for domestic use.

Chorley Environment Forum welcomed plans submitted by the Northampton-based Waste Recycling Group Ltd to the county council to build a landfill gas utilisation compound at Rigby Quarry and Houghton House Landfill Site, Adlington. Until now methane gases produced by goods dumped at the site have been burned off

If approved, the gases will be fed through underground pipes into a generator which will convert it into electricity.

The scheme, costing around £100,000, will be one of 60 in England, Scotland and Wales to convert gases into renewable energy which will be fed back into the National Grid and used to power 3,000 homes.

Michael Prescott, forum chairman, said: "It's a very good idea. Anything that can get away from using fossil fuels is excellent. It does seem like a small number compared to the number of houses in Chorley (45,000), but even a small start is good."

Mike Snell, manager of external affairs at Waste Recycling Group Ltd, the largest recycler of landfill gas in Europe, said: "We're trying to reduce the amount of fossil fuels and create more renewable energy like this.

"By collecting the gases that get produced by materials at the landfill site we are able to do this and help the environment by reducing the amount of fossil fuels used which cause damage to it."

The company receive, recycle and dispose of more than 15 million tonnes of household commercial and industrial waste a year.