Shropshire Waste Partnership has invited the two remaining bidders for its major long-term waste management contract to submit their final offers.

The partnership is in the process of procuring a contract that will see one contractor take on responsibility for the collection, recycling, recovery and disposal of the majority of household and other municipal wastes within Shropshire from April 2007.

The contract is backed by £35.8 million of private finance initiative (PFI) credits.

Frank Mulgrew, executive officer for Shropshire Waste Partnership, said: "Strong bids for the contract have been received from both Onyx and Biffa and we would like to praise them both for the quality of their bids and thank them for the commitment they have shown to the bidding process.

"We have now invited both to submit their best and final offers early next year.

"We will then use the next few months to further examine the issues we picked out during the earlier stages of the procurement process, including the kind of technologies that each company can provide us, before deciding upon our preferred bidder.

"The procurement process is going very well in Shropshire and we are extremely happy about the strength of our two bids."