CROWN POINT | The trash in your garbage can could someday become the tiger in your tank.

The Lake County Solid Waste Management District is considering proposals from two Indiana firms to construct plants converting municipal solid waste into ethanol, a hydrocarbon fuel supplement now offered at a growing number of service stations.

Spokesmen for Genahol-Powers 1 LLC and Indiana Ethanol Power LLC, both of Evansville, said their proposals would be the first in the world to provide full-scale waste-to-energy plants with processes previously used only in demonstration projects.

"We are providing solutions without any negative impact," said Zig Resiak, Indiana Ethanol's business development and pre-construction manager.

The proposals are in response to the county waste district's request for a 20-year plan to dispose of the county's rising waste stream.

Allied Waste, of Crown Point, has forwarded to the district a plan to continue landfill disposal for the next two decades.

Cliff Duggan, an attorney for the district, said Friday he is compiling a spreadsheet to compare the costs and benefits of the competing bids. The district's board of directors will vote on a choice in the coming weeks.

The ethanol companies each claim they will pump at least $70 million into the county to build and operate plants designed to process thousands of tons of garbage daily, creating jobs with minimal air or water pollution.

Genahol would crush and shred carbon-based solid waste such as paper, cardboard, wood and food waste, heating the mixture to 1,400 degrees in a low oxygen atmosphere, company officials said. The resulting gas would be distilled into ethanol.

Indiana Ethanol's approach is to ferment cellulosic materials -- including sludge from municipal treatment plants or large animal farms.

The thorny question of where to build such a plant is yet to be answered.