Waste management

Waste management is an optional feature and is only available when Waste Management is enabled in game settings.

## Background

Waste management includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring and regulation of the waste management process and waste-related laws, technologies, economic mechanisms.

Waste can be solid, liquid, or gases and each type has different methods of disposal and management. Waste management deals with all types of waste, including industrial, biological, household, municipal, organic, biomedical, radioactive wastes. In some cases, waste can pose a threat to human health. Health issues are associated throughout the entire process of waste management. Health issues can also arise indirectly or directly. Directly, through the handling of solid waste, and indirectly through the consumption of water, soil and food. Waste is produced by human activity, for example, the extraction and processing of raw materials. Waste management is intended to reduce adverse effects of waste on human health, the environment, planetary resources and aesthetics.

The aim of waste management is to reduce the dangerous effects of such waste on the environment and human health. A big part of waste management deals with municipal solid waste, which is created by industrial, commercial, and household activity.

## Gameplay

When the game setting Waste management is enabled workers and many buildings create waste. This waste must be disposed or otherwise the republic will become polluted. To take care of waste the player has to provide vehicles and buildings to the republic. The player must collect the waste and make a decision what to do with the waste? Export via a Customs house and pay for the disposal or process it first and export it afterwards?

A way to dispose waste is to burn it or separate the waste. By separating waste the player is able to retrieve Plastic waste, Metal scrap and other resources from the waste for further processing or export. Resources from the separation process can be recycled to retrieve processed resources like Steel, Gravel, Plastic and others. If, in the end, there is still waste remaining, the player still can choose to burn it or export the remaining waste and pay for the disposal. For separation, recycling or burning of waste there are several buildings available, just as several waste storage buildings.

The waste itself is produced by workers living in residential houses or at places where the workers go to work. Waste is also produced by buildings like factories. All this waste has to be collected and processed and/or exported over the border. For transporting waste there are several road vehicles available like garbage and container trucks. These trucks pick up waste from buildings or from collection points near buildings and transport it for processing or export.

There are different kinds of waste, like Construction waste, Plastic waste, Metal scrap, Biological waste etc. Also Mixed waste is available which, as the name implies, is a mix of different kinds of waste. Mixed waste can be processed to break it down into several other kinds of waste and later on recycled to get the processed resources out of it.

Demolition is also an additional option in game settings in combination with Waste management. With demolition the player has the option to mark a building for demolition and the demolition process starts. This process contains tearing down the building by workers or blow it up with Explosives. After demolition garbage and container trucks handle the waste, leaving a clean spot for the player to put another building in.

## General

The player has three options with Waste management:

* Disabled
* Waste
* Waste + Demolition

When only Waste is selected the player needs to take care of the waste that is being produced in the republic by citizens and waste producing buildings like factories. Take care with the means of picking up the waste, process the waste in separation and or recycling plants. The player can ultimately choose to burn the remaining garbage or export it across the border.

There is another setting which contains the settings from Waste but with the addition of demolition. Demolition comes with a Demolition office from where the player can assign buildings to demolish. The demolition is a process where workers and road vehicles handle the demolishing of the building and Big container truck take care of the waste. The waste will be processed as the player configures the waste buildings to his needs.

### Waste

Waste is being produced at places where workers live or work. Every building, where waste is produced, has default storage available, the Internal garbage container stand. When there are Trash containers in the neighborhood the waste is collected there and not in the waste producing building anymore. Garbage trucks will collect the waste from buildings and trash containers.

The waste collected from buildings and waste containers is a mix of different types of waste, named Mixed waste. The player can check the composition of the waste by hovering over the mixed waste icon or over a trash container icon and a small window appears with a description in percentages of how the waste is composed.

There are different types of waste

* Biological waste: When this waste is left in the storage it can turn into Fertiliser or it can be processed into fertiliser in a Composting plant. You can burn Biological waste but it won't generate much heat.
* Metal waste: Can be separated from waste and it becomes Metal scrap or Aluminium scrap after separation in Separation plants. Scrap can be stored in aggregate storages and it can't be burned.
* Construction waste: Is not burnable and can also be separated from waste and it turns into construction rubble. In a Gravel recycling plant the Construction waste is turned into Gravel and re-usable in Construction.
* Plastic waste: When separated from waste the Plastic waste can be transported to a Plastic recycling plant where new Plastic is created from the waste. Plastic waste can be burned, but has low heat value. When burning plastic waste it produces a higher amount of pollution, because it's a product based upon oil.
* Hazardous waste: This waste is generated at Hospitals and Clinics and cannot be processed to anything. This is a very polluting waste because it pollutes when stored or when burned. When burning, hazardous waste has low heat value but very high pollution.
* Burnable waste: Think of remains from Boards or so, which are burnable with high heat value, and have relatively low pollution.
* Other waste: Unspecified waste which cannot be recycled but can be burned with medium heat value.
* Ash: In general, when something is burned (except scrap and construction rubble), ashes are created which cannot be burned anymore.

### Waste collection

Waste is by default collected in the building in a garbage container stand. When the player opens the properties window of the selected building information is displayed about waste at the item 'Internal garbage container stand'. The internal storage is limited and depends on the functionality of the building. Buildings where workers live have limited storage capacity, while factories producing goods/resources can have a bigger storage capacity.

The player can increase the storage capacity of storing waste near buildings by placing Trash containers/Stand for garbage containers. The player has to take in account that when a trash container/Stand for garbage containers is placed, nearby a building, the default storage for the building will become the Trash container/Stand for garbage containers and the internal garbage container stand in the building is not being used anymore. These Trash containers/Stand for garbage containers collect only waste which is produced by workers living in residential buildings and/or working in factories. Waste produced from processing waste will not be stored in Trash containers//Stand for garbage containers.

Waste is being picked up by Garbage trucks or Big container trucks. The big containers are usually used by factories but can also be provided in residential areas at container stands. The player has to take in account that these container stands in common, should be in close range of the buildings, workers walk only a limited distance (approx. 125m on gravel footpath) with their waste. The advantage of using container stands is that the Garbage trucks don't have to pick up the waste from each individual building.

There are specific trucks for specific containers, meaning that the waste trucks can not pick up every container. The garbage truck can only pick up the small containers while the Big container truck can only pick up the big containers. The home for garbage trucks and/or big container trucks is the Technical services building. When the technical services building is selected by the player, the player can set sources where the garbage trucks and/or big container trucks, belonging to that technical services building, should deliver the waste. The player can assign sources for:

* Metal scrap
* Aluminium scrap
* Biological waste
* Plastic waste
* Hazardous waste
* Mixed waste

When a garbage truck/big container truck is fully loaded with waste, the truck delivers the waste to a source, as assigned in the technical services building. A garbage truck/big container truck can also be scheduled on a direct line.

### Waste processing

Waste will eventually have to leave the republic. But before this happens, the waste can be processed first. Waste processing takes place in two steps:

* Separation
* Recycling

The waste contains processed raw materials that can be recovered. To do this, the waste must be separated first. The separation of waste takes place in a separation plant. Garbage trucks and big container trucks deliver mixed waste to the the separation plant. The mixed waste is processed and separated after which different types of waste are created. Think of Construction waste, Aluminium scrap, Metal scrap, Plastic waste. In addition to these types of waste, mixed waste is created again, but with a different composition than that what was delivered at the separation plant. It has no use to provide this mixed waste to a separation plant again, because all the processed raw materials are already separated.

With the separated waste, the player now has the option to extract processed raw materials from the waste. These raw materials can be Steel, Aluminum, Plastic and Gravel and can be extracted from the associated waste. The waste must be transported from the separation plant to a Recycling plant. A corresponding recycling plant is available for each of the four processed raw materials just mentioned. The transport of the waste between those plants is handled by big container trucks.

### Waste disposal

At any time the player can choose to dispose the waste by burning it or by exporting across the border via a customs house. There is a downside about burning waste and that is Pollution. Waste is burned in an Incinerator and if the player chooses to burn the waste he can choose from several incinerators. There are even Incinerators which are generating power or heat from burning waste. In the end, Mixed waste remains, which mainly consists of ash.

### Waste Storage

Waste can be stored in dumps or in big containers. In big containers the storage is very limited while in dumps there is a lot of storage space. The downside of dumps without claw machines is that loading of waste trucks takes a lot of time, making these dumps more like landfills. Loading from dumps with claw machines is very fast for waste trucks. The Transfer for big containers is actually a parking place for containers. A big container truck is the only waste truck which can use this facility. The loading and unloading for big containers is fast.

Dumps and Transfer for big containers have a Factory connection so that they can be connected to factories. When connecting waste storages to factories the player needs to take in account that these storages are only an extension of the internal storage of the factory. These storages will not be handled from the Technical services building.
The behavior for connecting waste storages via a factory connection to Separation plants differs from other buildings. The factory connection can only work between those two structures if the two-way factory connection is converted into a one-way factory connection.

### Notes

* Walking distance for workers to container stands is limited to 125m over a gravel footpath.
* A Trash container or Stand near a industrial building only collects the waste which are produced by the workers working at that building, not the processed waste from a separation plant.
* When a container stand is nearby a building, this container stand will be the default place where waste is collected, leaving the internal garbage container stand of the building unused.
* It is useless to provide mixed waste from a separation plant to the same or another separation plant, because all the processed raw materials are already separated.
* One-way factory connections must be used between waste storages and separation plants.

## Buildings related to waste

### Construction

General separation

Scrap separation

Aluminium separation

Gravel recycling plant

Plastic recycling plant

Steel recycling plant

Aluminium recycling plant

Waste treatment plant

Incenerator (small)

Incenerator (large)

Scrapping facility (smaller)

Scrapping facility (Larger)

Ship scrapping facility (smaller)

Ship scrapping facility (Larger)

Dump (small)

Dump (medium)

Dump with claw machine (small)

Dump with claw machine (large)

Transfer for big waste containers (small)

Transfer for big waste containers (large)

## Gallery

Dump with claw machineGarbage truckTechnical services buildingGarbage container standTechnical services buildingDumpsIncenerator with Dump with claw machineBig container truckWaste separation plantRecycling plantStand for big waste containers (large)Stand for big waste containers (small)Stand for big waste containers (large)Stand for small waste containers (large)Stand for small waste containers (large)Dump (small)Dump (small) with mixed wasteScrapping facility (small)