Any solid refuse or trash encountered in either an industrial or municipal environment is refuse derived. As used herein, the solid refuse may contain minor amounts of fly ash. Preferably, the solid refuse is what is known as clean trash, in that it consists substantially of solid, cellulose-based materials, such as paper, kraft paper, cardboard, computer print-outs & cards, and paper towels, plastic-based, such as styrofoam & other soft plastics, metallic-based materials, such as acco-type fasteners, ring binders, paper clips, staples, binder clips & other sundry type soft metal wastes & glass. Preferably, the refuse or clean trash is substantially cellulose-based material & is substantially free of glass and metallic materials. Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is prepared from municipal solid waste. Noncombustible materials such as rocks, glass & metals are removed, and the remaining combustible portion of the solid waste is chopped or shredded. RDF facilities process between 100 and 3000 tons of MSW per day.