Mexico City, Mexico – Mexico City’s government is accepting bids from parties interested in turning the El Bardo Poniente dump into a waste-to-energy plant.

The 25 year project calls for producing biogas (gas formed from the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen) from the solid waste at the dump to produce fuel or generate electricity.

Considered one of the largest in the world, the El Bardo Poniente dumping ground was closed in December after exceeding its capacity of 16.9 million tons of trash during it's 26 years in operation.

According to Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, "The goal is to get a plant built to recover the methane gas at the dump without having to spend public money."

"This project is the first of its kind for Mexico and it will help reduce about 1.4 million tons of CO2, the gas blamed for global warming," Federal District Environment Secretary Martha Delgado said.

Bidding on the project ends in August and the winner is expected to be the group that agrees to build a biogas plant with “the smallest of subsidies” while meeting all the environmental and technical requirements of the Mexico City government.

Mexico City has a population of about 20 million and generates some 12,000 tons of trash daily, and officials have been working for the past three years to cut the amount of waste that ends up at trash dumps.

A composting program is one of the recent projects put into place by the Mexico City officials. It has helped reduced the amount of trash handled at dumps by 2,800 tons daily and produced mulch for streets and parks.