A method of treating a waste stream comprises a vacuum treatment to promote disintegration of the waste material by “flash vapor” production, causing a swiftly vaporizing fraction inside the material to literally explode or shred apart the matrix of the material as a whole. A main processor operates at a level of vacuum that determines a given boiling temperature for a vaporizing fraction, and one which lower than the fraction's boiling temperature for the local vicinity's barometric pressure (eg., atmospheric pressure). The input stream is pre-heated to above the given boiling temperature for that fraction as determined by the main processor's vacuum level without, however, going over the boiling temperature for the local barometric pressure. It is then introduced into the vacuum of the main processor whereby a minor percentage of the vaporizing fraction flashes into vapor, and this presumptively promotes destruction and/or disintegration of the material.