CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Charlotte will divert its household garbage from landfills to a renewable energy project that will turn it into fuel for electricity power plants.

The Charlotte Observer reported Wednesday that North Carolina's largest city is joining six other Mecklenburg County municipalities to ship garbage to the project, which its developers say could employ 1,000 people.

ReVenture Park would be built on the polluted grounds of a former textile-dye manufacturing plant along the Catawba River. The operation would convert garbage into pellets that could be used for fuel starting in 2012.

State legislators this year allowed electricity produced from ReVenture's fuel to count triple toward a requirement that utilities use or produce electricity from renewable sources.

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Information from The Charlotte Observer