The illusion of the recycling center

[yayaya1 22]

I have encountered an unusual problem for the first time with a recently plopped recycling center. The icon advertised that it relives 20% (correct me if i'm wrong, but that's how I read it) of the city's trash. I calculated this just to make sure, but i only had 70 tons out 560 tons, which is around 13%. This as a result had me raise my expenses more than it took away from the dump. Thanks.

[jmsepe 2,039]

Hmm. Save the numbers for me but I suggest downloading some garbage incinerator from the STEX (I use the blackhole thinggy). That will definitely remove all the stress from these stinky garbage. I don't think these recycling center are all efficient. When it said 20%, that might be the maximum amount it can recycle and such that is why you are only recycling 13% of the current total garbage. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You need one recycling centre for each 25K Sims in your city.  They are very expensive for what they do.

[yayaya1 22]

ok, that makes much more sense, and I now I get why they weren't economical. So, if I had 1 recycling center in my city of 50,000, would it only recycle 10%?

[.anonyman 28]

After wondering the same thing and trying to test it, I decided that the Maxis Recycling Center just doesn't work as advertised. It isn't worth plopping. I use NBVC Garbage Disposal lots (4 different sizes/capacities) in most of my cities.

[jmsepe 2,039]

All of the maxis utilities and vanilla transportation isn't worth plopping to be honest. They aren't efficient at all, good thing there is STEX.

[Ltw 401]

I don't use any standard Maxis waste management tools. They are not efficient and expensive. The basic dump could be helpful in the beginning but my more permanent solution is usually the this is very efficient (as the file says the capacity is basically unlimited), with a monthly cost of 10.000 it is expensive but for a big city that wouldn't be a problem. Furthermore I make deals with smaller cities.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

That's all true.  The programmers/designers were not very good at waste management, but then look at the mess California is in now.  The recycling centre in Mississauga, Ontario and the one in Vienna, Austria both produce potable water as one of their by-products.  I think both use very high temperature incineration for things that cannot be recycled into use.

[Shark7 118]

 I guess there are two schools of thought when it comes to dealing with garbage in game.  Those that want it gone as efficiently as possible, and those that prefer to build based on looking realistic.  I fall into that latter category myself.   Though I am not saying either way is good or bad, just different.

 

When I go for garbage disposal sites, I'm more about how it looks as opposed to how efficient it is.  Granted I tend not to use the Maxis garbage buildings (save the landfill of course) more due to the fact that they don't look realistic (too clean really).  I build a big central site to process the garbage, with some recycling centers spread through-out the map to act as collection sites.

 

When I set it up, I dedicate a large portion of a large city tile to setting up a landfill/garbage processing site.  Then I will use some landfill space (cheap for starting), then when I get to a point I can afford it, start plopping custom Waste to Energy plants.  All of this is in a security fence enclosed area.

 

Mean while in various parts of the city, I will set up recycling centers, do some landscaping so the sims don't actually have to see it and turn on the trash presort ordinance. 

 

Bear in mind, I do recycling centers for even the smallest of cities, though not every tile has a processing center on it.  I export from surrounding tiles into the tile with the processing center.

 

Basically each of us will have their own way to do it, but I think we all tend to shy away from the Maxis buildings for one reason or another.

[yayaya1 22]

OK, so Maxis is obviously not going to cut it, so the trash solution I'm looking for is some mod that is realistic, efficient, and affordable (black hole, a bit over my current budget). I just started the city a few days ago and I'm already facing the challenge of balancing a very unstable (but definitely improving) budget. Any other solution/mods?

 

Edit: is Paeng waste management functional or cosmetic?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You need a minimum of 110,000 in your treasury to use mine.

 

 

 

The water plant is the main fuel source for the power plant.  The power plant also uses any and all air/water pollution as fuel except for traffic pollution. Radius: 1 large tile.  Use the Clean Air Act ordinance for that.

[.anonyman 28]

I highly recommend this solution:

 

 

These are 4 lots - by nbvc - which provide flexibility, realistic costs, and nice-looking waste management sites. There's a small one and 3 larger ones. They are very effective: I've used them to remove all the garbage from landfills in older cities.

[APSMS 1,893]

As an unintended cheat, the Waste-to-Energy plants like the Black hole plant can be used with funding set to zero; the plants (all of them, Maxis or otherwise) will continue to process garbage until they reach capacity. Because the Black Hole plant has pretty much unlimited capacity, you'll likely only need one, but the Maxis default will work the same. You may need more than one, though, depending on the size of the city and the amount of trash you have.

[cogeo 960]

I don't bother with the Maxis recycling centres, they do nothing but wasting your money. They cost $350/mo for eliminating some 18 tons of trash (maybe this can be raised a little with ordinances), that is the cost is ridiculously high, some $20/ton, by far the most expensive utility type in SC4. Maybe if someone mods them to serve 50,000 sims instead of 25,000 sims and reduce garbage by 30-33% instead of 20%, the cost will get down, to about $6-6.5/ton, still expensive but a possibly viable option for a "green" mayor. Otherwise they are just a joke.