Under this scheme the refuse-collecting vehicles discharge their loads into a receiving hopper from which the material falls by gravitation into a hexagonally-shaped revolving riddle. This screen or reel for two-thirds of its length is perforated to allow the fine ash associated with the waste to escape into another large hopper placed immediately beneath. The ash may then either be withdrawn directly from this hopper into wagons or carts for removal, or should arrangements be made for its combination with other ingredients to produce a fertilizing agent, it may be led by conveyor from the hopper to the compounding-room. For the remaining third of its length the hexagonal revolving screen is perforated with a coarser mesh to permit the cinders to escape into a separate hopper, at the base of which is a worm conveyor which receives the cinders and bears them to a washer. The washing operation is introduced to allow the separation of the light or combustible fuel--cinders--from the heavier clinker, fragments of glass, pottery, and other incombustible substances. At the same time all fine dust clogging the interstices or pores of the cinders is removed, thereby facilitating the subsequent combustion of the cinder, while, of course, the heat produced from the cleansed fuel is greater than that derived from such material loaded with incombustible dust. After being washed the cinders are picked up by a scraper elevator. If it be intended to utilize this fuel for raising steam in the adjacent power plant it can be carried by conveyor direct to the boiler-room, to be discharged into the bunkers or furnaces. Should it be decided to dispose of the cinders, either wholly or in part, to the general public, they may be taken by the transporter to any suitable point to be stored against sale in bulk or in bags. A second scraper elevator gathers the heavier debris separated from the combustible fuel in the washer, and carries it to a pulverizer, to which it is delivered through a chute. If the fine dust associated with the raw refuse, and which fell through the receiving screen, be not delivered from its hopper into vehicles for immediate disposal, it may be led to this point to be stored in the pit receiving the material from the pulverizer with which it may be mixed. Of course, the dust is not passed through the grinding plant.