Kitchen waste including mouldy bread and rotten eggs is set be converted into electricity thanks to the development of innovative new technology.

Homes in Richmond, Hounslow and Ealing will have their food rubbish collected from their doorstep and burnt at an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, where the methane will generate enough “green electricity” for the national grid to continuously power almost 3,000 homes.

The West London Waste Authority has struck a deal with BiogenGreenfinch Ltd, which will take the food to its new plant in Northamptonshire.

Philip Greenaway, of BiogenGreenfinch, said AD was regarded as “the greenest of the recycling technologies.”

He said: “We already know that the scheme will be very popular with people and it makes financial and environmental sense.

“We’re also so pleased for everyone here at BiogenGreenfinch who’ve put in three years hard graft on developing AD in the UK. We’re confident it’s a technology with fantastic potential.”

Councillor Irwin Van Colle, chairman of West London Waste Authority, said: “We’re very pleased to be working with BiogenGreenfinch on this new contract. I’m confident that the new plant will be a great success.

“This is the Authority’s first contract to use anaerobic digestion as a treatment technology for food waste. It represents the future for waste management. Diverting waste from landfill like this saves money for council tax payers, helps generate electricity and provides a bio-fertiliser for use on farmland.”

Councils involved could save millions in landfill tax, imposed to discourage the dumping of food waste which gives off methane, a greenhouse gas 22 times more damaging than carbon dioxide.

Householders will have to put out a plastic box, provided by the council, along with all other recyclables. It will be collected at the same time as glass, paper and plastics.