A £50 million contract for the disposal of York's waste was today being signed by council chiefs in the city.

City of York Council is appointing Yorwaste, the North Yorkshire recycling and waste management company, to handle the city's refuse disposal for a further 15 years and recycling for a further five years.

The contract, worth more than £50 million in total at today's prices, was being signed at York's Eco Depot in James Street.

John Miller, Yorwaste's Recycling and external affairs manager, said: "We are obviously delighted to have been reappointed by City of York Council.

"This is a very important contract for us and will require us to process and/or dispose of about 112,000 tonnes of household and commercial waste each year.

"The kerbside source-separated waste will be handled at our Hessay facility, but most of the rest, including the green waste, will be processed or disposed of at our Harewood Whin site.

"We aim to recycle at least 40 per cent of the total volume of waste processed, in line with our goal of not wasting waste."

Terry Collins, the council's director of neighbourhood services, the department responsible for waste management, said: "We are delighted to be working with Yorwaste and hope the experience they have in waste disposal can further benefit our services to York residents."

Under the contract, Yorwaste will be responsible for the disposal of residual waste from domestic and commercial collections and from household waste recycling centres (HWRCs). It will also dispose of material from street cleansing, fly tipping and gully cleansing as well as the output of waste treatment plants.

Other responsibilities include:

* Collection from HWRCs and subsequent processing of fridges and freezers, plastic bottles, paper, glass and cans.

* Processing and/or disposal of inert waste and bonded asbestos from HWRCs.

* Composting green waste from domestic kerbside collections and York's three HWRCs.

* Processing of source-separated recyclates collected at the kerbside.

* Processing and/or disposal of bulky waste, fridges and freezers and both hazardous and inert waste from municipal collections and fly-tipping.