BACKGROUND: Disinfection is an essential way to ensure the safety of recycled water. Ultraviolet (UV) is an effective and environmentally friendly technique suitable for the disinfection of recycled water. However, UV disinfection also leads to photoreactivation. This work proposes a combined use of UV irradiation and microwave technique to compensate for the limitations of UV disinfection. RESULTS: The process of microwave-induced electrodeless ultraviolet (MW-EUV) irradiation was utilized to disinfect municipal secondary effluents. A homemade columnar electrodeless UV lamp was used as the source of UV irradiation. Good disinfection results under optimal microwave power at 600 W were obtained. There was no photoreactivation after sufficient irradiation. Cell damage to Escherichia coli by MW-EUV irradiation was investigated by measuring the leakage of K+ and protein from cells and was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). CONCLUSION: The MW-EUV irradiation was demonstrated to be a faster and more effective disinfection method than UV or microwave irradiation alone. The irradiated samples met the hygiene standard for the reuse of urban recycling water (Standard Number GB/T 18920-2002) in China. Disinfection depended mainly on UV irradiation, while microwaves were the main cause of bacterial breakup and deformation. This irreversible damage offsets the biological self-healing phenomenon of UV disinfection. (C) 2016 Society of Chemical Industry