A DARWEN firm that specialises in envir-onmental technology is pioneering new ways to turn everyday rubbish into heat and electricity.

Planet Advantage, based in Albert Place, Lower Darwen, has won massive financial backing to make the process become a reality, revolutionising waste disposal.

Over the last few years Planet has been developing a process where household and industrial waste is disposed of by letting it smoulder at relatively low temperatures.

But the new process, which can be likened to a cigarette standing on end smouldering from the top down, does not produce harmful by-products.

Because the technology would remove the need to put waste in landfill sites, it has already received interest from a number of foreign governments.

The company is also in talks with energy company NPower because of the electricity and heat it produces.

Phil Scowcroft, founder and managing director, said: "This technology is the future and is being driven by the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move towards renewable energy sources and the safe disposal of waste.

"We are receiving a lot of interest in the technology from various energy companies and the government.

New investment in the company comes after Manchester-based Ascot Environmental, a civil engineering business that specialises in the waste and environmental sectors, acquired a 50 per cent stake in Planet.

Jim Hennessey, Ascot's founder and managing director, said: "Many of our established clients and contacts are taking great interest in the technology."

Planet Advantage, which also specialises in recycling and waste processing, was set up in 1996 by Mr Scowcroft, of Bolton, and will reach a turnover of almost £15million over the next year.

The company has four full-time employees and uses specialist consultants on a contract basis.

It is one of only a handful of companies involved in the technology, because it is such an expensive sector to operate in.