A process for converting organic waste into reusable hydrocarbons and a system for doing so, the system including a feeding mechanism for the waste, a reactor and a residue-disposing mechanism. The waste is to be fed into the reactor in which a molten lead bath is confined in an oxygen-free atmosphere. The system is used to practice a process for the pyrocatalytic conversion of the waste, which process comprises, feeding the waste into a reaction zone of a pyrocatalytic reactor, the waste being essentially free of a halogenated synthetic resinous material, and mixing the waste with a minor proportion by weight of a particulate catalyst in the bath held at a temperature in the range from about 450° C. to 550° C. in an elongated vat. The catalyst consists essentially of a major proportion by weight of particulate bauxite