A multi-million pound waste-to-energy plant with the ability to power 50,000 homes by burning rubbish could be built on Severnside.
Recycling and waste company Sita UK wants to put the facility on a brown-field site next to the Seabank power station on Severn Road, between Avonmouth and Severn Beach.
If it wins planning consent from South Gloucestershire Council it could create electricity from the incineration of up to 400,000 tonnes of commercial and industrial waste a year diverted from landfill.
And an application from another company for a similar-sized plant at Avonmouth could also soon be made.
But Bristol Lib Dem councillor Gary Hopkins, the council's cabinet member for the environment, said the city's waste would not go to the waste-to-energy plant as it was "not environmentally acceptable or cost effective".
 The Lib Dems and Tories combined to bring down the city council's then Labour cabinet earlier this year over the possibility that an incinerator could be built at Avonmouth as part of a regional waste plan.
The technology proposed for the plant on former ICI land would involve the controlled burning of the waste, producing steam to drive a turbine and generate electricity.
Gareth Phillips, planning and property manager at Sita UK, said the plant – which the company calls an energy recovery centre – could supply enough power for half the households in South Gloucestershire.
He said: "With landfill tax set to rise to £72 a tonne by 2013, local businesses are faced with increasing pressure to reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill. This development could significantly benefit businesses by providing an efficient alternative."
He said based on the projected 2010 rate of £48 per tonne, that would save £19.2 million in landfill tax.
Mr Phillips and his colleagues have briefed South Gloucestershire councillors about the scheme but said the proposal was in its very early stages.
The company does operate similar centres in other parts of the country, including Yorkshire, but the Severnside plant would be the first in the South West.
It would also take three years to build, providing 200 construction jobs, and would be unlikely to be completed before 2014. It would then create between 50 and 60 full-time jobs. The site chosen for the plant covers about 20 acres – eight hectares – which ICI had used as a fuel store.
Sita does not expect to submit a planning application until the autumn at the earliest and only after a consultation exercise involving local people. That includes a series of public exhibitions.
Mr Phillips said the kind of waste to be processed included mixed packaging and plastics from shops, offices and factories that was dry and non-hazardous.
He said: "It's the sort of waste that is not economic to sort and would normally end up in landfill."
He said it was currently anticipated that waste only from businesses would be accepted but there could be capacity to receive household waste.
He sad improvements to the existing railway line would also be carried out so waste could be transported by rail.
Mr Phillips said: "The forthcoming closure of a number of fossil fuel and nuclear power stations means the UK faces a major shortfall in energy generation. Waste is a potential resource for generating a secure and affordable source of power, which could help to fill that gap.
"In addition, energy recovery technology plays an important role in waste management, disposing of non-recycled material in a safe and clean way."
SITA says it does not have precise figures but those for other plants imply it would produce just over 8megawatts of energy per 100,000 tonnes of waste burned – about 33MW in total. That is about a tenth of the energy produced by one of the Magnox reactors at Oldbury nuclear power station.
There are also no figures available on the CO2 and other emissions the plant could produce.
Gary Hopkins, who spearheaded a Lib Dem and Tory campaign to fight an incinerator in Avonmouth, said: "We won't use any of the capacity of the South Gloucestershire Sita site, or encourage the use of it by doing so.
"Our concern is that if it's built there would be waste imported from other areas to keep it going.
"We don't want waste being brought in from other areas and for Bristol residents to suffer the negative effects.
"We won't use it as we don't think it is environmentally acceptable, it is not cost-effective and it would be foolish to rely on it because it might run into all sorts of difficulties with finance and planning permission."
Environmentalists have also raised their fears. Glenn Vowles, 47, a green campaigner and Open University lecturer in environmental science and decision-making, said: "It has the highest environmental impact when it comes to energy from waste technology, because it's straight burning.
"The most environmental option is to not produce the waste in the first place. There's little incentive to reduce waste if you have this facility."
Four of the public events to discuss the plans will run from 4.30pm to 8.30pm, with the first in Easter Compton village hall, Main Road, on July 7. It will be followed by exhibitions in Pilning Church Hall, on July 8; Avonmouth Community Centre, on July 9; and Severn Beach Village Hall, on July 10. The last will be in Almondsbury Church Hall, on Saturday, July 11, from 10.30am to 2pm.