Am I using the Incinerator incorrectly?

[Aqizzar]

I have a medium sized Dump full of Mixed Waste, with a one-way factory connection to a (vanilla) small Incinerator. It very quickly stopped working because the Incinerator's own garbage containers were full up.

So, I assigned a large container truck to deliver waste from the Incinerator to the Dump its drawing from. After watching for a while, the Incinerator seems to *produce* just as much Mixed Waste as it consumes.

Please tell me I'm doing something wrong, because this can't be the way Incinerators are supposed to work, and my city is drowning in garbage.

Why would Incinerators produce waste at all? The tooltip for the garbage says it is >50% Construction Waste and >20% Ash. Ash isn't even something you can separate, and I can't possibly use that much gravel from construction waste.

[whisper]

The incinerator leaves construction and metal waste alone, makes burnable (and i believe organic) waste disappear, and converts "other" mixed waste into ash. The reason you'd prefer ash over mixed waste is ash dissipates over time, slowly.

Ideally you want to be sorting out the plastic metal and construction waste before it goes to the incinerator, and then the incinerator needs an output dump to put the ash in.

You probably will also need a distribution office to move the ash from this dump to a bunch of other simple dumps since just one dump probably won't be enough to keep up with how much ash you'll build up relative to how fast it dissipates. Waste management is pretty complicated!

[Shrike]

Ash will dissipate slowly on its own if left in a dump, or spread across multiple dumps and leave the remaining garbage types. I prefer to dispose my ash at the border to make sure it never overflows, some players prefer to mod in a giant dump.

[Silent_Shadow]

Construction waste, metal scrap, aluminum scrap, and ash are not reduced in tonnage when processed by an incinerator; they just pass through. If you separate out the construction waste, 35% of it will become "other waste," which can be burnt into ash for a 80% reduction in tonnage for a total 28% reduction of construction waste tonnage. Other types of waste lose tonnage when burned, but some lose a lot less, like fertilizer or hazardous waste (the component, not the mix). Only "burnable waste" is destroyed entirely.

You pretty much have to separate the construction waste out and export it or periodically delete it at the cost of pollution. Processing construction waste into gravel and then into cement to be sold is a good way to reduce the amount of tonnage that must be moved to about 25%, or down to ~18% if the separation plant was involved.

Ash can be disposed of by putting it into a dump and waiting (an array of dumps will be required for a suitable decay rate), or you can "export" it for a fee.

[Aqizzar]

Originally posted by whisper:

The incinerator leaves construction and metal waste alone, makes burnable (and i believe organic) waste disappear, and converts "other" mixed waste into ash. The reason you'd prefer ash over mixed waste is ash dissipates over time, slowly.

I know that the Incinerator only burns certain kinds of waste, but it does burn Mixed Waste... and produced an equal amount of Mixed Waste, only ~20% of which is labeled Ash. Not clear on how I'm supposed to transport the Ash specifically, since that isn't a garbage type with its own cans.

I guess the real question here is: what am I supposed to do with the 1000 tons of Mixed Waste I've accumulated? Wait a year for Separation to be researched? Just ship it over the border? Since there's no "bury it in a hole" option, I feel like there's a significant link of the chain missing.

[Silent_Shadow]

Some types of waste are just assumed to be mixed waste, even if they are the only waste type in the mix. Ash, burnable waste, and "other" waste are all handled as mixed waste. Then there is "hazardous waste," which can refer to the component or mixed waste that has any hazardous waste in it. All of these can be handled by any garbage truck.

Different waste types convert into ash at different rates, so how much ash will be produced from burning mixed waste (hazardous or not) will depend on the amount of each waste type in the mix. Incineration plants list the percentage of each waste type that is destroyed; the remaining percentage becomes ash. Separation plants list the percentage that gets extracted for each waste type; the rest becomes "other waste."

[whisper]

Originally posted by Silent_Shadow:

Construction waste, metal scrap, aluminum scrap, and ash are not reduced in tonnage when processed by an incinerator; they just pass through. If you separate out the construction waste, 35% of it will become "other waste," which can be burnt into ash for a 80% reduction in tonnage for a total 28% reduction of construction waste tonnage. Other types of waste lose tonnage when burned, but some lose a lot less, like fertilizer or hazardous waste (the component, not the mix). Only "burnable waste" is destroyed entirely.

You pretty much have to separate the construction waste out and export it or periodically delete it at the cost of pollution. Processing construction waste into gravel and then into cement to be sold is a good way to reduce the amount of tonnage that must be moved to about 25%, or down to ~18% if the separation plant was involved.

Ash can be disposed of by putting it into a dump and waiting (an array of dumps will be required for a suitable decay rate), or you can "export" it for a fee.

Hey, making construction waste gravel into cement is a great idea. I've just been exporting the gravel directly even tho it doesn't cover the cost of transit just because i don't want to deal with trying to integrate the gravel back into the construction ecosystem and risk backing up my waste management.

[Aqizzar]

Last pertinent question: Why doesn't the Incinerator send its produced waste to nearby Container stands? Mine shows a connection to the one near it, but just fills its internal storage and stops working without sending any.

[Silent_Shadow]

Because you do not want ash to go through the whole collection-separation-incineration pipeline again. You cannot burn ash away and it would just be extra work to sort through and transport for no gain, so the incinerator is set up to only output to its internal storage and waste storages that are connected by factory connection. The mixed waste trash of the incinerator's workers can be collected in unconnected waste stands/bins though.

[Silent_Shadow]

Originally posted by whisper:

because i don't want to deal with trying to integrate the gravel back into the construction ecosystem and risk backing up my waste management.

Just set up an overflow system where vehicles bring gravel/cement to your building materials depot first and then bring anything left in the vehicle to customs to be sold.

[frederic.bonave]

Sorry but I am lost. If you have organise selective bins system what should the best layout of your incinerator and ash management ?

[Aqizzar]

Thanks for the explanations everyone, now that I understand how Mixed Waste is carrying its internal calculations waste management is working fine. Game still needs a more holistic way to just dispose of garbage from the start. Even dumping it into water would be enough.

[Silent_Shadow]

Originally posted by Aqizzar:

Game still needs a more holistic way to just dispose of garbage from the start. Even dumping it into water would be enough.

You have free dumps and can let it pile up for a few years or export it for a fee. The small incinerator is not that expensive either and dumps without cranes are almost free, so there are ample options for the start.

Originally posted by frederic.bonave:

Sorry but I am lost. If you have organise selective bins system what should the best layout of your incinerator and ash management ?

There are three main points to ash management:

• Reduce ash production. - The less to dispose of, the less land, money, and/or transportation is needed to handle the ash.
  • Pre-sort as much as possible/feasible. Extracting wastes at separation plants creates "other waste," which can only be burnt into ash. Construction waste is particularly bad with a 35% conversion rate into "other waste," and you will be creating a lot of it.
    
  • Treat hazardous waste - 50% of the hazardous waste component becomes ash and you cannot sort out plastic waste that otherwise would just become ash. Note that chemicals are only used on the actual hazardous waste component in the mix, not on the entire mix.
    
  • Do not allow bio-waste to decay into fertilizer unless you plan on using it for farming, as burning bio-waste instead of burning it as fertilizer reduces the ash created by ~57%. Bio-waste only decays in open dumps, not in stands (including transfer), bins, nor vehicles.
• Ensure all non-burnables (metal scrap, construction waste, etc.) are sorted out before burning. - This prevents the dumps that ash decays away in from filling up with stuff that decays very slowly instead of ash. Sorting after burning also creates "other waste," which decays at a very slow rate and burning mixed waste made mostly of ash is just a waste of the incinerator's processing throughput.
  
• The rate of decay for ash in a dump depends only on the size of the dump, not how much ash is in the dump, so to maximize the overall ash decay rate, spread your ash out across multiple dumps instead of putting it all into one dump.

The actual incinerator should only be receiving burnable waste, bio-waste, "other waste," and maybe hazardous waste if you have more space than chemicals. Connected to the incinerator should be a dump explicitly marked for mixed waste (this always allows trucks to unload into it, even if a different waste type is present) and a transfer station with waste stands for bio-waste and hazardous waste; waste deliveries should only be made to these storages and not the incinerator to avoid unloading unburnt waste into the incinerator's output ash dump, which should have a crane and lines of trucks taking ash to an array of other dumps to decay the ash away en mass. Like the input dump, the ash output dump should be explicitly marked for mixed waste so the incinerator can always push ash to it regardless of what is in the dump.

For collecting waste, most of it should be pre-sorted at the source and sent to the respective recycling facilities (note that industries can sort into designated stands without research). Bio-waste goes to farms for composting (or decaying in dumps) into fertilizer and the excess is sent to the incinerator, construction waste should be processed into gravel/cement for construction or to be exported, and so on. Some mixed waste cannot be avoided (like from scrapping vehicles and certain demolitions), and must be processed at a separation plant, which can output directly to the incinerator's dump.

Small bins have a lot less capacity than large bins and load a little slower, but they have a far better selection of trucks for specialized lines. Hazardous waste can also decay in open stands, which can create severe pollution in the area, so collect hazardous waste from hospitals in small bins.

[Beast of War]

Wait....

I always sorted all kinds of materials out of mixed waste before it went to the incinerator, and did so in a connected chain of separator buildings up to the incinerator. But this is prone to clogging of course.

I wonder now having read all of this to place metal and aluminium separation AFTER the incinerator. The idea is then much less other materials have to go through the building, this of course at the expense of being able to separate plastics. ( which for my country size are usually a very low yield won back material anyways )

[frederic.bonave]

Clear,
Is there any interest to send mixed waste coming from bins ( selected by citizens and industries ) to a separation plant before burning ?

[frederic.bonave]

About rate of decay for ash in a dump, what do you mean exactly ? How the size influence the rate ? Do you mean that the decay will be faster in small dumps or in large dumps ?