Westbury’s Mechanical Biological Treatment is expected to create up to 12 new jobs for the area by the time the site becomes fully operational in September.

The £24 million facility, which will handle 60,000 tonnes of household waste each year, finished construction in December and is currently undergoing a commissioning phase, during which all the equipment will be calibrated and tested.

The Northacre resource recovery centre (RRC) will form an integral part of Wiltshire Council’s strategy to significantly reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfill.

Northacre plant manager Simon Thomas said recruitment for the specialist roles on offer had already started, with the plant looking to initially hire six people.

He said: “We have already started recruiting for roles and we want to hire about six people initially to run the plant in commissioning phase up until around April or May.

“We are cautious about over-recruiting, so we only want to hire the core people and then work out how many more we will need to run the plant effectively.”

Northacre RRC will produce around 28,200 tonnes of solid recovered fuel each year when fully operational, which will initially be used in renewable energy plants in Europe, until a local market has been established.