Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic

Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic

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Simple Series - Waste Management Guide
By John Moridin
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What is the simple series about?
Workers and Resources is a complicated game, when you are new (or newish) it is very easy to struggle with basic things like getting public transport working.

There are video tutorials but not only do you have to invest 10 minutes or even as much as an hour, but they might never mention or just gloss over the specific thing you wanted to know. The simple series provides bite-sized chunks of information that you can skim through in a minute to get what you want to know.

The simple series often provides a single opinionated way to do things. not because it is the only way or even the best way, but just because it is easy to explain concisely.
Glossary
The developers have got some terrible names for their new buildings so I'm going to provide my own words for their buildings

* Transfer for big garbage containers (small) => Small Garbage Transfer Station
* Transfer for big garbage containers (large) => Large Garbage Transfer Station
* Small garbage stand (small) => Small Residential Garbage Stand
* Small garbage stand (large) => Large Residential Garbage Stand
* Big garbage stand (small) => Small Industrial Garbage Stand
* Big garbage stand (large) => Large Industrial Garbage Stand
Residential garbage stands vs industrial garbage stands
Small garbage trucks can only pick up from residential garbage stands, residential buildings and service buildings. Big garbage trucks can only pick up from industry garbage stands and industrial buildings.
Consider using industry (big) garbage stands in residential areas
The large residential garbage and the small industrial garbage stands are similar in size but the industry one holds 50t more of waste.

You can reduce traffic by using the big garbage trucks and industry garbage stands, since garbage trucks will be able to pick up 6.5t of waste at a time. The only downside is that you can't build them on pedestrian paths.
Checking the contents of mixed waste
You can tell what the mixed waste consists of by mousing over it and looking at the tooltip.

Waste sorting in Garbage Stands
Residential waste sorting
  • For hospitals and clinics you need to configure a few containers nearby to hold the hazardous waste, it has internal storage for hazardous so this works without the "waste separation edification" research
  • Once "waste separation edification" has been researched, then you should set containers for biological waste (assuming you want to use it), metal scrap, aluminium scrap and plastic.
Industrial waste sorting
  • The "waste separation" research is not required for industrial waste sorting (except for biological waste), you can configure sorting from the very beginning. Mines creates construction waste, fabric factories creates hazardous waste, etc.
Waste decay
Waste will decay (disappear) very slowly if left in a dump, but it will not decay in garbage transfer stations.

Biological waste won't decay, instead it will gradually turn fertiliser if left in a dump.

Rather than exporting all your waste, you can leave it to decay in dumps. If you want to do this, make sure you sort out any construction waste and metal scraps before or after burning it. Construction waste and metal scraps do not burn and decay much slower, even when mixed with other waste.

Waste decays at the same rate whether it is in a small dump or medium dump, so it is better to use lots of small dumps for decay.

I wouldn't especially recommend this strategy over exporting because mixed waste is so cheap to export (unlike hazardous waste).
Early game setup
Use a technical office to transfer all mixed waste into a garbage transfer station, and all hazardous waste into a dump.

Keep the garbage transfer station at least 200m from your residential city.

Keep the hazardous waste dump at least 500m away from your residential city. Probably just put it in your industrial area (so 1km away).

You'll be accumulating a lot of mixed waste and it is cheap to export (via a line or distribution office). On the other hand, you don't produce as much hazardous waste and it is expensive to export so you can leave it in dumps to decay for much longer. Later on you can just burn it or treat it.
Mid game setup
Technical office => (Truck) => Garbage Transfer Station => (Truck/Factory Connection) => General Separation Building => (Factory Connection) => Dump => (Factory Connection) => Incinerator => (Factory Connection) => Garbage Transfer Station/Dump With Claw => (Truck/Train) => Customs House

If you burn hazardous waste, you should keep the incinerator 1.5km from residential areas. Otherwise, 1km is good enough.
Late game setup
By late game, you should be moving waste with trains but the main flow is the same. Sorting and incineration should be done locally (within 2km). Then what's left should be exported or left to decay.

There are specialised buildings for sorting metal scrap and aluminium scrap at a higher efficiency than the general separation. The difference in efficiency is only 10%, and most waste should be sorted out in the garbage stands anyway, so they don't seem worthwhile.
Coal mines, iron mines and waste
Coal and iron mines produce a lot of waste.

It is best to attach a garbage transfer station directly to coal and iron mines (via the factory connection) because technical offices will struggle to handle them. You can move the garbage from the garbage transfer station via a line or distribution offices.

You should (a) configure waste sorting for construction waste in the garbage transfer station and garbage stands, (b) send the construction waste to a local gravel recycling plant and (c) send the mixed waste to a local incinerator.

This will reduce the waste that needs to be exported by 70%-80% for mixed waste and 33% for construction waste.

When to use a dump, dump with claw and garbage transfer station
It is fast to unload but really slow to load from a dump. So you mainly use them as a one way dump of garbage (e.g. hazardous waste) or as intermediate storage (e.g. between the general separation building and the incinerator).

The biggest "dump with claw" building has a rail connection, so you use that to move waste around with trains. The smaller "dump with claw" buildings can be used when you want the waste to decay before you transfer it. For example, wanting biological waste to decay into fertiliser.

The garbage transfer station is what you use for holding garbage until you move it somewhere else. It can hold multiple garbage types in containers and the containers can be quickly picked up by big garbage trucks. Note that only the big garbage truck load quickly from the garbage transfer station, not the small ones.
Effectively transporting waste
You can move waste around via trucks, trains, cableways, conveyors (construction waste, aluminum scrap and metal scrap only), and forklifts (plastic waste only).

Aggregate Storage and Conveyors
To move construction waste, aluminum scrap or metal scrap with conveyors, you need to drop it off at an aggregate storage first.

Construction waste, aluminum scrap and metal scrap can be transported with dumper trucks or open hopper train wagons if they are stored in an aggregate storage building. They cannot pick up from dumps or garbage transfer stations.

Open Hull Storage and Forklifts
To move plastic waste by forklifts, you need to drop it off at an open hull storage first.

Plastic waste can be transported with open trucks or open hull train wagons if it is stored in an open hull storage building. They cannot pick up from dumps or garbage transfer stations.

Cableways
Cableways can be an effective way to transport large amounts of waste short/medium distances. For example, from one side of an industry area to another.

The most common use would be transporting waste from your mines down the mountain and directly to the incinerator/gravel recycling plant.



(1) Mine -> Transfer station -> Cableway station (load mixed waste) -> Cableway station (unload) -> Transfer station -> Incinerator (2) Mine -> Transfer station -> Cableway station (load construction waste) -> Cableway aggregate unloading station -> Conveyor/Aggregate Storage -> Gravel recycling plant

Trucks
The simplest way to move waste around is using garbage transfer stations. They hold multiple types of waste, they are cheap to build, and require no electricity.

The downside to garbage transfer stations is that the quick loading speed is only for the big container garbage trucks, which can only hold 6.5t. The unload speed is the same for both though.

There is a 10t small container garbage truck (first released in 1973). To avoid the loading speed problem, it must load waste from a dump with claw building.

Trains
Excluding modded ships and planes, trains are the best way of moving large amounts of waste long distances.

Trains should only load directly from the railway dump with claw building. Loading indirectly through cargo stations is very slow.

While trains are the best way of moving waste, loading and unloading waste is much slower than for other types of goods. You can easily overwhelm the customs house or your train network if you don't put enough thought into it.
6 Comments
morp 18 Aug, 2024 @ 6:59am 
Great series. I'm tired of youtubers getting paid for how much time you need to watch them before you get your answers.
Robert Montjoy 23 Mar, 2024 @ 1:20am 
That's weird... I tried this:

I did have a 2 way Factory Connection from Seperator to Power Plant. And I just played a bit with changing the direction to One way... back and forth.

Yes, you're perfectly right: The Ammount of Waste (Ashes) where always the same. But, it seems to me that the Power Plant was producing Power none the Less, sort of Perpetuum Mobile.
John Moridin  [author] 22 Mar, 2024 @ 10:36pm 
When you put something through an incinerator only some types of waste are burned, metal and construction waste aren't burnt for example. And once you burn normal waste (excluding metal, construction, etc) it turns into ask which can't be burned a second time.

If you put 10 tons of ash into an incinerator then 10 tones of ash will come out. If you put 10 tones of construction waste into an incinerator then 10 tones of construction waste will come out. So I think that might be confusing you.

It does look like you can run an incinerator power plant on non-burnable waste, but non-burnable waste goes through the incinerator extremely quickly so it isn't practical. Especially since you are going to have to use trucks to move the waste back into the incinerator.

You also need to use 20 people to produce 1/3 of the power of a coal power plant, so I don't think it is worth all the hassle.
Robert Montjoy 20 Mar, 2024 @ 6:47pm 
First: Thanks so much for sharing your knowledege!!!

Second: Oh my... this is Early Access.

Ieems I solved the worldwide Energy Crises, I guess...

Sorry to say... but this Garbage Feature is Trash... SCNR.

Well, all one needs to do is:

1. Build a seperator
2. Place it in your Coal Sector
3. Build a "Gabage-Power-Station"
4. Connect it with your Seperator via Factory Line
5. The Power-Station will burn through the Garbage
6. Take the Waste from the Power Staion and feed the Seperator
...

Think you get my Meaning, there are many ways to exploit this "Waste-Feature", generating Energy and Resources... practically for free.

I stumbled across this while looking for a way to get rid of my Trash... this amount of Waste is ridicoulus.

Think- I'm going to deactivate it unless it's more balanced.

Cheers and thanks again
Robert
Altaree 20 Mar, 2024 @ 10:23am 
I really like your descriptions of the uses of the buildings at the end.
Tony 1 Jan, 2024 @ 7:56pm 
appreciate this i cant watch videos bc they take too long!! :steamsalty: