Abstract: Disclosed is a wet process recovery system for solid waste. The waste is fed into a hydrokinetic separation step wherein it is immersed in a body of water which is subjected to rising and lateral flows. These flows establish a synthetic gravitational environment to effect separation of solids above and below a predetermined density greater than the density of water. The solids having the higher densities are collected by gravity and transported from the water for recycling. A modified hammermill is connected to the body of water and the rising and lateral fluid flows cooperate to carry waste into a cutting and ejecting mechanism which both shears friable waste and dynamically ejects non-friable waste back into the liquid. The output of the hammermill is a slurry of comminuted waste in the liquid. This is pumped to a centrifuge separator where solid waste is separated from liquid and the liquid recirculated to the body of water to create the flows in that body.