Major construction firm Kajima Corp. announced Monday that it has succeeded in building a facility that can generate electricity directly from leftover food and other organic waste.

By using microscopic organisms and fuel cells, the facility, located at Kajima's technical research institute in Tokyo, can decompose about 200 kg of organic garbage per day and generate 120 kw of electricity per hour, according to the company.

It is the world's first such plant to produce electricity from garbage without burning it. Because the whole process bypasses incineration, no harmful vapors or substances such as dioxin are produced.