The Macarthur Resource Recovery Park is based on a three-bin system garden waste, recyclables and garbage.

* The separation hall is where the garbage is dropped into water vats.

``That big rotating turbine will actually push the waste into the water,'' operations manager Bruce Bailey said.

``The purpose of that is to separate waste that is lighter than water and waste that is heavier than water.

``The heavy waste will have electromagnetic separators and things called eddy current separators that will separate out aluminium.

``The light material, things that are plastics and cardboard and paper, will float across the top of the water and be pushed onto two conveyors.

``Then it's a gradual process of size reduction, shredding, separation and filtration.

``At the end of that is dissolving all the food stuffs in the water and that aqueous solution goes to a very large microbiological plant that has these special bacteria will break the food down to methane and water.''

What can't be broken down by the bugs will be non-putrescent and disposed of in a nearby hill and landscaped over.

* In the nearby organics facility, a tunnel composting process fast-tracks decomposition and turns the organic waste into compost fines, coarse mulch and soil conditioners that will be sold.

* Recyclables are sorted and recovered, using both manual and mechanical systems, before being consolidated and packed.

* Reusable materials such as bikes that would otherwise be sent to landfill will be recovered, repaired if necessary, and sold in the Revolve Shop.