Have you ever wanted to turn all those large robes the human invaders drop into bags? Or feed your unused wooden furniture to the furnaces? Or maybe recover the decorative gems and metal studding from low-quality objects? Well, that's what this idea is about.
Basically, the concept is to extend the functionality of the
Melt designation to non-metal items and decorations on items. Any valid object can be designated with
Salvage or Melt Item, making it valid for recycling. Most recycling (other than melting) should take place at the Craftsdwarf's Workshop, unless a new "Salvage Yard" workshop is made. (Perhaps with associated "Salvaging" labor and skill.)
First, the new basic forms of recycling:
Cloth (and Leather):Any cloth objects would be reduced to a partial stack of the cloth used to make them. This would only retain the basic material and dye of the cloth (if applicable), whereas the quality would be reset to "no modifier". (Any images sown on an item would be salvaged as well.) Worn-out clothing (and images on them) would have decreasing returns the more worn-out they are. This is done via the "Scrap Cloth(/Leather?) Item" labor.
Wood:Wood items could be consumed in a Wood Furnace with the "Make Charcoal/Ash (use item)" labor. This may result in less than a full bar of the resultant material, especially with crafts and mugs (e.g., items that come more than one to a log).
Glass:Recycling glass is a bit more complex. First the glass items marked must be salvaged via the "Pulverise Glass Item" labor at the Craftsdwarf's Workshop. This would produce bags of "Crushed [Crystal/Clear/Green] Glass", which could then be reused at the Glass Furnace.
One major complication here is the "partial" bags of glass which would result from salvaging glass crafts. One solution would be for the labor to always require the use of an empty bag, but not actually fill that bag unless enough glass has been ground to fill a counter internal to the workshop.
Barely worth mentioning; but wax could potentially be recycled at the Craftsdwarf's Workshop, under the "Melt Wax Item" labor (which would
not require fuel).
Stone/Ceramic/Bone/Shell/Horn/Gem/Other:Unless a more realistic refuse system is implemented, the only purpose of salvaging these items is to recover any decorations on them (or perhaps train a relevant skill while disposing of garbage). The basic material the item is made of is lost. (See below for decorations.)
Finally, some decorations can be recovered during salvage operations (including melting items). Cloth and Leather images (as mentioned before) would be reduced to their composite materials like cloth/leather items. Gems and metal studs could be salvaged wholesale. Everything else, however, would probably be lost.
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Topic: Dwarven Salvage and Recycling (Read 635 times)