Recyclables

Recyclables

Recyclables are a loose product created by the Recyclables Collection, Research Lab II•III•IV•V, and all variants of Maintenance Depots.

The product is generated from machines consuming Iron, Steel, Copper, Glass, and Gold, offering a way to reduce usage of Natural Resources by reprocessing recycled materials in the Waste Sorting Plant. Efficiency can reach up to 90%, depending on the Recycling Efficiency modifier.

Recycling Efficiency

Recycling Efficiency determines the percentage of used materials that can be recovered and reused through recycling. It starts at 25% and can be increased to 90% via Edicts and Research.

At 25% efficiency, for every 100 Iron consumed, 25 Iron is recovered from Recyclables processed in the Waste Sorting Plant. Higher efficiencies amplify this reuse dramatically:

- Efficiency Levels and Total Usage (from 100 units of material):

 - 25%: 132 uses (132% of original)
 - 50%: 196 uses (196%)
 - 60%: 247 uses (247%)
 - 70%: 328 uses (328%)
 - 75%: 395 uses (395%) - Max for ver 0.7.5(Update 3:Trains, Space & Asteroids) with all edicts and max recycling focus
 - 80%: 494 uses (494%)
 - 90%: 989 uses (989%)

Each “use” represents the material being cycled through production and recycling, where 90% efficiency means 100 units act like 989 units over time due to repeated recovery. For example, jumping from 80% (494 uses) to 90% (989 uses)—a 10% increase—doubles the effective usage, much like how 80% to 90% damage reduction in ARPGs doubles survivability.

Storage and Overproduction

Recycling at high efficiency (e.g., 90%) floods the system with recovered materials—like Gold—faster than they’re consumed. With limited storage (Recyclables Collection, internal buffers, belts), over-smelting raw ore during startup can clog the system, as recycled products loop back before space clears. Adding buffers or reducing initial smelting helps balance this overcapacity.

Scrap Production

The scrap produced from recycling is based on what items were consumed to generate the recyclable item, but are not stored with the recyclable item itself. Instead, a building adds to the Pending Scrap value for each scrap type. The waste sorting plant outputs Pending Scrap at random so long as the pending value is greater than or equal to 1, with the quantity being proportional to how many recyclables existing in the world. So if the island has 100 recyclables, recycling one will output 1% of Pending Scrap value of each scrap type.

Scrap values for consumables and subcomponents at 60% recycling efficiency. (Ver 0.7.5)

Resource	Iron Scrap	Copper Scrap	Gold Scrap	Aluminum Scrap	Broken Glass
Steel	1.2	0	0	0	0
Mechanical Parts	0.6	0	0	0	0
PCB	0	0.15	0	0	0.3
Microchips	0	0.4	0.4	0	0
Household Goods	0.15	0	0	0	0.3
Medical Equipment	0.72	0	0	0	0
Anesthetics	0.15	0	0	0	0
Morphine	0	0	0	0	0.15
Electronics	0	0.6	0	0	0
Electronics II	0	1.35	0	0	0.3
Electronics III	0	3.1	0.4	0	0.6
Lab Equipment	0.4	0.2	0	0	0
Lab Equipment II	0.4	0.2	0	0	0.2
Lab Equipment III	0.4	0.425	0	0	0.25
Lab Equipment IV	0.4	0.8125	0.05	0	0.325
Office Supplies	0.05	0.225	0	0	0.15
Household Appliances	0.4	0.85	0	0	0.1
Consumer Electronics	0	1.0333...	0.1333...	0.3	0.2
Luxury Goods	0	0	0.15	0	0
Medical Supplies	0.36	0	0	0	0
Medical Supplies II	0.36	0	0	0	0
Medical Supplies III	0.435	0	0	0	0.075

Recipes

Below are all the recipes which contain this item. Note that some of them may be locked behind Research and not immediately available in your game.

Production

Tier I

:

8

24

4

12

20 

60 

160

480

6

18

Tier II

:

6

18

4

12

20 

60 

160

480

8

24

Tier III

:

3

9

2

6

20 

60 

80

240

8

24

:

1

6

10 

60 

1

6

Tier II

:

1

12

5 

60 

1

12

Tier III

:

2

24

5 

60 

2

24

Tier IV

:

4

48

5 

60 

4

48

:

1

6

10 

60 

1

6

:

1

6

10 

60 

1

6

Consumption

:

6

72

5 

60 

2

24

:

48

144

20 

60