Wyndham City has thrown its support behind a waste to energy plant in Melbourne’s west with councillors praising the private sector for coming up with solutions to help solve Australia’s waste crisis.

The council issued a planning permit for a waste reprocessing plant in Laverton North that would convert household rubbish into enough electricity to power up to 20,000 houses.

"This site would be the first gasification facility in Australia to provide a localised solution for managing waste in an area while generating power to supplement the local energy grid," the council said in a report.

However the $100 million plant cannot commence until it has also been approved by the Environment Protection Authority.