A new power plant has recently opened up in Austin in a rather unusual place -- the Austin Community Landfill.

The power plant took about a year to build with a price tag of about $6 million. It is still in the testing phases, but it should be fully on line in the next couple of weeks.

Everyday about 2,000 tons of garbage are brought into the landfill. Once buried it decomposes and creates large amounts of methane gas.

They used to burn off the methane gas to prevent damage to the ozone layer. The gas is now being used to generate electricity. It should be enough to power about 6,000 homes in the Austin area.

Steve Jacobs with Waste Management says it is a winning project for everyone.

"I am real excited about this. It's actually like mining a buried treasure out here," he said.

Jacobs said the landfill will continue to produce gas for years after the landfill is closed.

"It should continue producing the electricity at the same level for approximately 20 years after the landfill stops accepting waste," he said.

Waste Management currently has about 100 of these power plants across the country. They plan on building about 50 more.