City Garbage Management

[Mr. Wu 0]

Here's my problem.  Everytime I try to start a new region or start a new cluster of cities within an existing region I invevitably run into garbage stockpiles lowering land values and hampering growth and this occurs on fairly tiny cities of 5k to 15k population.

Recycling centers only reduce the garbage output but the garbage still pile up on the streets and my cities usually stop growing or reverse as wealthy residents and businesses flee.

This usually occurs when city finances are tight and I'm spending lots of money building up infrastructure and zoning.  When this garbage problem occurs, I'm forced to do 1 or 3 things.

!)Build a waste to energy plant - this usually blows my budget and I go into deep deficits

2)ship garbage off map to another city

3) ship garbage off map to another city who then builds a waste to energy plant to ship energy back.

Here's my question. Is there an alternative to shipping garbage off map or building waste to energy plants?

Landfills seem like an obvious answer but their upkeep is very high and they fill up too quickly.  Are recyling centres more efficient with a landfill?

Any help?

[Cjah 15]

Well if I recall....hmmm I think if you use Recycle stations it is better on your enviroment yes....but on money...no....

I say do what i did below....

I remember one day wondering why it was my recycle center didn't work and my landfill was so full....then I though why not add a Waste to Energy...cuz I used to use them alot and I actaully prefer them....but anyway in the long run I decided to use one tiny landfill...like 3 by 3 or something and one waste to energy plant...

I think it works well because if the landfill gets to full it normally will lower if you cut the funding of the landfill....and you still get power....if done correctly...

[cogeo 960]

Recycling centres are ridiculously expensive and inefficient, costing $20/ton, by far the most expensive structure in SC4. They cost you $350 per month for reducing the gatrbage generated by 25000 citizens by 20%, ie only 18 tons!

Landfills are expensive as well, they cost some $3/ton when they get full and you keep paying for them years after they stop receiving trash. However there is a bug in the cost calculation (which you can exploit to your benefit - a bit cheaty): build a labdfill in another city, preferably a small city with only a landfill in it (and a road connection). If you never "run" this city, meaning it will never really get any garbage (so the landfill will be empty), the price offered for a deal is only a fraction of the real cost, ie $0.1-0.3/ton! Advantageous, but cheaty as well!

W2E plants are a good choice, they cost $2/ton, and if also take into account the electricity generated, the price is $1-$1.5/ton, depending on your pricing of the electricity and the pollution generated.

There is also a non-electricity generating incinerator (link in my sig), costing $1/ton.

Of course, there is also PEG's garbage chute, very cheap but unrealistic too...

[Sam 163]

I like the CSX Rural Waste Tech lot for smaller cities. I find it quite efficient and realistic. I virtually never use recycling centres or land fill since I found this lot. Also, some of the older custom lots have unrealistically high garbage production, due to the default values in the plugin manager. I think T Wrecks released a mod to fix many of these older lots (look for the Stats And Values Pack on the STEX) . 5-15k population seems a little low to be having lots of garbage piling up in the streets, so perhaps your cities may be affected by this?

I don't think shipping garbage to another city is very unrealistic. SC4 was designed so that you could have different cities with different functions on the same region, eg have a garbage city. If you put your dirty industry in the same city as your garbage lots and some low wealth residential, it needn't be unrealistic. I find it quite good value for money too. To balance the cost of exporting garbage you could have your neighbour cities supply your garbage city with water (which also has the advantage of keeping the water supply away from the pollution).

[greyveil 37]

sam is correct, I use the CSX Rural wastetech (Thanx Vlakhaas!) for smaller areas and landfill cities (exchanging garbage disposal for water) for larger areas, the combination works great for a region, and IMO is very realistic.

[andhow 0]

Can anyone point me in the direction of the Stats And Values Pack?  I have searched STEX for each key word but without success. Thanks.

It's also worth noting that if the funding for a W2E plant  is reduced to nil, the garbage absorbtion remains but no pollution is produced.  Or so I believe.

Personally, I currently use the garbage chute; more for space saving than anything else.  Works like a dream!  I find the incinerator makes my commercial demand plummet.

For all the comments regarding bad design of the trash (and transport) program - and I agree generally - in the real world too these issues cause the biggest headache for our pollies and mayors, so perhaps SC4 is not too way out with its' idiosyncrasies!

To me, the most realistic tool would allow landfills to be reused for building, parkland etc when full, as in the real world.

[Sam 163]

The link to the Stats and Values pack by T Wrecks is here: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=14195

I put in stats and values in the STEX search box and it appeared straight away. You didn't happen to accidentally search the forums instead of the STEX did you? The STEX main page is here: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?page=1

Edit: I like the last idea about re-using the land fil for parks, that's what often happens in real cities.

[greyveil 37]

andhow,

STATS And VALUES Pack And Reference Database

by T Wrecks 

(EDIT) jinx sam you beat me by a few seconds, lol (end EDIT)

[andhow 0]

Thank you!  I thought I'd searched Mods and Downloads and Stex but I may have been wrong.  Appreciate your help. 

[deadwoods 542]

I'm working on a lot that will provide some useful garbage stats. If you have a look at the Forest Lots Recycle Centre, it has a similar query.

[paperboy15 4]

You don't need to generate electricity from the W2E plant in order to burn the garbage. Just set the funding of the W2E plant to zero. You will still be paying for garbage collection of course. I think the capacity of one W2E is 500 tons/month.

Cheers!

[Mr. Wu 0]

Thanks for all your input, it is very much appreciated

hmmm. garbage chute (where can this lot be found) vs. W2E that is unfunded. It's tough.

I want to play this city with as few exploits as possible and I'm contemplating whether turning the funding off WSE is something that would not be 'honorable' for a mayor to do.

[cogeo 960]

The garbage chute can be found on the STEX, just search for "chute", and you will find it. But... if you don't like exploits then how would you use such a lot? 

As for the W2E plant exploit, this is definitely a cheat (the plant should have a running cost), but as long as Maxis allow this many people think its not (a rather weak argument). Where in the world is garbage disposal free? But it's up to you to decide...

[SC4BOY 20]

I like just using the GARBAGE TO POWER plant in standard SC4. I normally set them to zero funding to reduce the air pollution, but I will use them if I need a bit of power to "tide me over" to the next power plant. One G2P plant will handle a city of about 66k sims.

[paperboy15 4]

SC4BOY...does not funding it really reduce the air pollution?

[SC4BOY 20]

It seems to me it does.. I've not tried to quantify it.. I've seen it stated by others that it ELIMINATES it, but it seems to me it still generates some pollution in proportion to how much garbage you are "eliminating". Might make an interesting experiment

When I build them, they are often in areas that have other polluting things near them, so I can't say. And I haven't been sufficitiently motivated to actually test it, though it would not be hard. Since others say it "eliminates" it, I'd think they would have some test results, but I cannot personally vouch for that. There have even been extensive arguements as to whether doing this is "cheating" or not..