Every seasoned RUST player knows the importance and value of Recyclers. These unique machines are scattered throughout the game but are not player-craftable. Due to this fact, and since there is a finite collection of Recyclers, players must be strategic with their farming and also be able to defend it.
With our RUST Recycler Guide, we will shed light on the more profound game mechanics surrounding the Recycler, explain why they are so crucial to a successful start to the wipe, and how to find them on the game map. We will also cover the changes made in May of 2024 that significantly alter how world recyclers perform, the resources they yield, and the difference between Safezone recyclers and those found at PVP monuments.
This guide covers the following:
What are Recyclers?
Why are Recyclers important?
How to use a Recycler?
Where to find Recyclers?
What items give the best scrap?
What are Recyclers in RUST?
Recyclers are a unique device in RUST in which users can insert up to 6 stacks of items at a time to be recycled and broken down into their constituent parts. Once turned on, the Recycler will slowly convert the inserted items into their “recycled” components. Not all items can be recycled or broken down into other components and will be left untouched in the input hopper.
Originally, most items broke down into some or most of the components used to craft them at a rate of about 50% of the amount needed. Items that would break down into components that are of a single quantity will have a roughly 50% chance of yielding that component.
When running the Recycler, it takes time for the device to break down items into their components. If the player has added stacks of items, processing will take many times longer. Keep a watchful eye out when using the Recycler, though, since using it does not make you immune to PVP. Other players will likely be drawn to your location due to the audible sound of the Recycler running and the promise of free loot.
It is not uncommon for players to camp in nearby cover and watch for players on recycling runs as an easy means to acquire resources. Knowing this fact, players should take precautions to keep themselves out of view while waiting for the Recycler to do its thing by hiding, closing doors, etc.
Why are Recyclers important?
Knowing where to find Recyclers is a big part of resource farming in RUST. Recyclers are important for farming resources quickly in the early game when every minute counts. Building up a secure starter base and learning blueprints is costly in terms of resources, time, and Scrap, which is why knowing where to find Recyclers can help players maximize the results of their farming efforts. Some items that will be gained from boxes and barrels in roadside junkpiles will break down into additional scrap. This makes the scrap farm more profitable. Similarly, these same items can break down into Metal Fragments, wood, stone, cloth, High-Quality Metal, and other useful components, like Gears or pipes, that will help accelerate early game progress.
In addition to maximizing the resource take-home of the scrap or resource farm run, recycling plays an important role in inventory management. As a player on a farm run, you will encounter more diversity of loot than you have available in inventory spaces. Frequent recycling reduces loot down to a more manageable stack of resources that will reduce the amount of loot that you will have to triage and leave behind because you didn’t have inventory available to hold it all.
How to use a Recycler?
Recyclers are containers with an input and an output. Players can input up to 6 items to be queued for recycling. Stackable items can also be inserted and will only take up a single slot inside the Recycler.
When you are ready to start the Recycler, press the large green “Turn On” button to begin recycling. Like a furnace or refinery, the Recycler will slowly start churning out resources over time. Unlike these smelters, though, the Recycler needs no fuel because it runs on monument electricity (presumably).
Recycled components will appear in a specially reserved output space containing up to 6 different item stacks. You can and should move components to your inventory as soon as components appear in the output containers. The Recycler will shut off if it runs out of input items to recycle or if there are no free output spaces to put new components, just like a furnace would.
Remember that if you leave the Recycler unattended with items inside, other players can run up and take them. The container is only locked down while a player is actively using it.
Where to find Recyclers?
Recyclers are found within or near monuments around the RUST game map. We’ve created a listing of maps of these monuments with highlighted locations to make the Recyclers easier for you to find.
RUST Abandoned Supermarket Recycler Location
Recycler Location
The Abandoned Supermarket Recycler is easily accessible on the backside of the supermarket. Follow the outside of the building until you’ve reached a chain-link fence attached to the back wall. The Recycler is inside. There is a door to get through the fence and a hole in the fencing itself that a player can crouch-walk through.
RUST Airfield Recycler Locations
The Airfield monument houses two Recyclers.
The first can be found inside Hangar 2, along the left wall behind a group of crates.
The second Recycler can be found in the large building opposite the tarmac from the hangars.
When facing the building, head to the left side, and you’ll come upon the large doors of a garage. The Recycler will be in this room along a wall next to a Repair Bench and across from an oil refinery.
RUST Arctic Research Base Recycler Location
The Arctic Research Base monument houses one Recycler under the large satellite station. You can see the large white satellite if you position yourself in the monument’s center. Located outside on the ground level, you will find the Recycler.
RUST Bandit Camp Recycler Location
The Recyclers at the Bandit Camp are located inside of the giant dredge.
To locate the first, enter the dredge and proceed to the stairs to the second level. Once on the second floor, enter the Casino room. There will be a door to the left of the Big Wheel—go through this door, and the Recycler should be straight ahead and to the right of the steering wheel.
The second Recycler is in the same room, along the wall of the door, just past the large poker table.
RUST Giant Excavator Pit Recycler Location
The large excavator Recycler can be found in the main control room. If you hop down off of the platform on the opposite side of the engine, you will see the Recycler beneath the platform next to one of the false doors.
RUST Large Harbor Recycler Location
The Recycler at the Large Harbor is next to the Shipping building, which is in the lower right corner of the screenshot above. The yard of the shipping building is mostly enclosed by a chainlink fence and crumbling stone walls, with plenty of spaces for hopping over. The Recycler is against the wall that faces the water.
RUST Oxum’s Gas Station Recycler Location
The Oxum’s Gas Station Recycler can be found inside the garage. If you are standing at the front of the gas station under the pump carport, the garage will be the section on the right side with a partially open garage door. Duck under this door, and you will be face-to-face with a car lift. The Recycler will be to the left of the lift along the wall next to a large pile of spare tires.
RUST Small Harbor Recycler Location
This Recycler can be found on the concrete pier occupied by the large, blue cranes. Follow the pier all the way to the water. When you come upon a chain-link fence that opens to a concrete staircase, take the stairs down and take a sharp right to follow the wall with the stairs. The Recycler is hiding right behind the wall of the staircase.
RUST Junkyard Recycler Location
With the introduction of the HDRP art backport in the World Revamp update, the Junk Yard monument received a huge overhaul that completely changed the Recycler’s location within the monument. To get up to the new Recycler location, locate a large ramp to the right of the southern entrance in the screenshot above. Follow the ramp up to what looks like a small office space that sits atop the overpass that overlooks the yard. Keep running through this area to the next ramp leading up to a covered space. In this covered space, you will find a hobo barrel and the Recycler right next to the entrance of the covered space.
RUST Launch Site Recycler Location
The Launch Site Recycler can be found close to the 3 cylinders on the warehouse side of the monument. In front of these cylinders are two warehouses that are facing each other. The Recycler is nestled under the overhang opposite a blue container.
RUST Lighthouse Recycler Location
The Recycler at the lighthouse can be found on the third floor. Upon entering the lighthouse through the exterior door, locate the stairs to the second floor and continue up the par-cor floorboards that lead to the third floor. The Recycler will be located along the stone wall opposite the lighthouse tower.
RUST Mining Outpost Recycler Location
The Recycler at the mining outpost is mostly self-evident. The Recycler is inside the building in between a stack of pallets and a shelf.
RUST Military Tunnels Recycler Location
The Recycler at the Military Tunnels Monument can be found in a metal shack near the Shelter 4 Storage mine tunnel exit. See our RUST Military Tunnel Guide for more details on navigating this monument.
RUST Outpost Location
The Outpost has a special location dedicated to recycling, and thanks to the Modular Cars Update, it now hosts three Recyclers at the location marked in the image above.
RUST Power Plant Recycler Locations
One Power Plant Recycler can be found in the puzzle building opposite the steam towers. To get to the top floor, follow the stairs and walkways along the outside of the building. Follow the walkway until you reach a door into the building with no lock. The Recycler will be inside.
Another Recycler can be found inside the large, central puzzle building in the middle of the monument. Head up to the “control room” level and follow the wall around. The Recycler is nestled between two tall storage shelves. The final recycler is located within an open-ended shipping container on the ground near the underground aqueduct tunnel system.
RUST Sewer Branch Recycler Locations
One Sewer Branch Recycler is behind the red warehouse building on the top side of the monument. A concrete wall wraps around to provide some cover, and the Recycler is inside this semi-enclosure.
The second Recycler is underground inside of the sewer. Find the manhole entrance in the monument’s center, next to the parkour jump puzzle. Follow the tunnel until you reach a locked door. You will need a blue keycard to get through this door. Once you’ve unlocked this door, follow the tunnel until you enter a sewer main room that appears to be inhabited. The Recycler is located across from a set of stairs in this room.
RUST Satellite Dish Recycler Location
The Satellite Dish monument is another monument that received a complete overhaul with the HDRP art backport update. The satellites now sit on three concrete pads, one of which is only the broken base of a dish that has fallen off. The new Satellite Dish Recycler is underneath the broken remains of this dish’s base, nestled amongst some wooden storage crates on top of the concrete pad.
RUST Train Yard Recycler Location
Starting at the water tower, follow the pipes that lead to a red warehouse building. Take the stairs to the top-most level and enter the first available door. The Recycler can be found in a small interior room with no door on this floor.
RUST Water Treatment Plant Recycler Location
The Water Treatment Recycler can be found on the top floor of the long warehouse building seen at the bottom left of the screenshot above. There are multiple methods for getting to the top floor, but regardless of the method, you will be able to find the Recycler snug up against a partition wall that is also being shared with a repair bench.
What is the difference between Safe and Nonsafe Recyclers?
Beginning in May 2024, Recyclers in RUST are being considerably altered in both their time for use per item and output. These factors are hinged on a very simple variable: whether or not the recycler being used is located in a Safezone.
For years, players have battled back and forth on various media platforms that the concept of ‘safe’ in a world like RUST has no place. Regardless of which side you sit on, the development team has seen fit to incorporate a new Tax, as it were, for those choosing to AFK in Outpost while incentivizing those brave enough to take fire whilst breaking down their components.
In addition to the increase (+20% for non-safe recyclers) or decrease (-20% for safe recyclers) in resource output per recycler you choose, changes have also been made to the amount of time it takes to recycle items. On the non-safe front, the times have remained the same at the standard 5 seconds per bundle as before, whereas the new safe recyclers take a whopping 3 seconds longer per bit to break down. This means that when recycling a stack of 20 Pipes, the time investment at a safe recycler will take you 30 extra seconds per stack on top of a 20% decrease in output.
Safezone recyclers have also taken on a new appearance and make a new, lower-toned, more dysfunctional sound when operating. The interface itself cites the decrease in resources and increase in grind time.
