TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ENVIRONMENT - Preferred Method: The first conversion technique is selected from wet digestion, dry digestion, anaerobic digestion, aerobic digestion or composting; and produces biogas. The biogas is converted to a liquid fuel or electricity. The first conversion technique includes digesting the organic waste in an induced blanket up-flow anaerobic digester. The dry organic material is further dried using aerobic composting, air drying, solar drying, waste heat from burning biogas and/or from burning dry organic material prior to being converted by the second conversion technique. The separation of the wet organic from the dry organic materials yields a dry organic material having less than 25% moisture content and the dry organic material is converted to a refuse derived fuel. The second conversion technique includes compacting dry organic material and/or thermally oxidizing the dry organic material to produce electrical power and/or heat. The dry organic waste is enriched in plastics, and the second conversion technique involves sorting the dry organic material by separating 3-dimensional plastics from 2-dimensional plastics to yield a 3-dimensional recyclable plastic product. The 2-dimensional plastic is converted to a fuel and the 3-dimensional plastic is recycled to form a plastic product. The mixed waste stream includes inorganic waste, and the method further involves separating at least a portion of the inorganic waste from the wet and dry organic waste material to form an inorganic waste stream enriched in inorganic waste materials or to increase purity of the wet organic and dry organic waste streams; and recovering at least a portion of the dry organic material as a recyclable product. Preferred Components: The mixed waste stream (less than 40, preferably less than 1 wt.%) is separated as a recovered product using manual labor. The mixed waste stream includes dry organic waste (at least 15%) and wet organic waste (at least 30%). The wet organic waste (at least 10 wt.%) is selected from food waste, animal waste, yard waste and green waste. The mixed waste stream includes low value material (at least 20 wt.%) selected from wet organics, green waste, food waste, grit, fines less than 1 inch, asphalt, concrete, textiles, wood, rubber, film plastic, polyvinylchloride (PVC, foil, rock, used consumer products, low value glass, and/or composite materials.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INSTRUMENTATION AND TESTING - Preferred Components: The mechanical sorter includes a shredder, a size separator, and/or a density separator.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Components: The dry organic waste (at least 10 wt.%) is selected from 3-dimensional plastic, film plastic, paper, cardboard, rubber, textiles, and wood. EXAMPLE - No suitable example given.