Abstract: A waste treatment system which is capable of handling materials of widely different physical characteristics such as glass, metal, and fibrous and plastic waste, incorporates a rotor rotatably mounted in a waste receiving vessel, the rotor being adapted to fracture brittle material, compact malleable material, and otherwise pulverize the frangible waste to a particulate form small enough to be extracted through a perforated plate. The rotor also circulates the material in a slurry form within the vessel in a vortical pattern so that the waste is repeatedly treated until it is ejected from the vessel. A series of space attrition bars are mounted outwardly of the rotor to provide an annularly shaped, discontinuous attrition surface, and hammers or flails are pivotally mounted on the rotor to reduce into smaller pieces materials which are flung upon or between the attrition bars by the rotor.