MOSCOW, October 5 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow authorities have resolved to build the city's first garbage reprocessing facilities instead of opening more incineration plants, a deputy mayor said on Monday.

Under the new development program of solid waste handling facilities the first garbage reprocessing plant will be built in Moscow's eastern district of Lyubertsy within three years. Eight more plants are planned for the Western, Southwestern, Northeastern and Northern administrative districts of Moscow.

"We had earlier had plans to build 11 garbage incineration facilities, but now, taking into consideration the pubic opinion, we abandoned this idea and worked out a strategy of garbage reprocessing plants construction," Pyotr Biryukov said.

Costs of reprocessing garbage are 2.5 times lower than incineration - recycling one metric ton of waste will cost the city budget 15,000-16,000 rubles (about $500), while burning it would cost 37,000-38,000 rubles (about $1,300).

Each year, Moscow has to deal with 5.5 million metric tons of waste. About 27% is burned at incineration plants, located in the northeast, east and south of Moscow. The remaining waste is taken to numerous landfill sites, but these are expected to be completely full within five years.