Councillors last week allowed staff to begin drafting long-term contracts for two companies to process the city's waste.

They discussed the matter behind closed doors last Wednesday as it involved private, commercial information.

The council has now released details on two potential solutions expected to come online after Eaglehawk's landfill hits capacity in 2023.

More news: Decision yet to be made on location of Bendigo's 2023 Dawn Service

By that time, the landfill will become a transfer station and the council will need to truck waste to Patho, near Echuca, while it searches for more solutions.

The council hopes one way to solve that problem would be to allow a private company to start composting 17,000 tonnes of food and garden waste each year from Bendigo alone.

That could slash emissions by 16.3 per cent compared with current kerbside bin arrangements, the council believes.

The council could also allow a small-scale plant to extract energy using pyrolysis and gasification from 30,000 tonnes of waste.

The plant would export energy to the grid and could potentially slash carbon emissions by 78 per cent, compared with taking waste to landfill, the council estimated.

More news: No Commonwealth Games funding on council's state budget wish list, yet

It could take two years for both ideas to start operating, the council's resource recovery manager Brook Pearce said.

"Both technologies will be situated in the municipality," she said.

"However, work continues to take place to ensure the right location is sourced to meet all regulatory requirements."

The public would not notice any changes to service at the landfill during any lag time, Ms Pearce said.

Councillors will consider each draft contract at a later date.

Mayor Andrea Metcalf said the council wanted to transition to a "circular economy" that wasted far less, in line with a wider Victorian government push.

"The city will continue to look for circular economy opportunities for other waste streams such as commercial, industrial, timber, construction, demolition and textile waste and other items traditionally sent to landfill," she said.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: