wood and textiles is fed into the shredder 30 where its size is reduced to a degree suitable for milling into fine particles for example in the neighbourhood of 2 5 cm such shredded waste is then conveyed via a suitable conveyor 32 to a metal extractor 34 which eliminates any metallic matter that may have been present in such waste this can be done by passing the shredded waste through a suitable screen that will catch larger metallic pieces as well as by using magnets to remove magnetic materials and other suitable means from the metal extractor 34 the shredded waste is fed to the conveyor 26 to be mixed with pressed pulp this conveyor 26 is normally an auger with cut and folded flights which mixes the material as it is conveyed to the hopper mixer 28 the mixed waste is metered from the hopper mixer 28 into a mill 35 via a rotary valve 36 in the mill 35 the size of the waste is reduced to fine fibers or particles preferably of about 15 u03bcm or less in diameter and the moisture content is reduced from about 50 to about 4 by weight the mechanical work performed by the mill 35 in pulverizing the waste also performs the drying of the waste air is added to the mill 35 via conduit 38 to act as a carrier for the pulverized waste which is then fed pneumatically via conduit 40 to a combustion reactor 42 in this case the combustion reactor 42 consists.