Cities Skylines 2 Garbage Guide

Don't let your city turn to trash.
Landfill in Cities Skylines 2
Image Source: Paradox Interactive

Running an efficient city is all about effectively managing the wants and needs of your citizens. Unfortunately, their waste habits can quickly turn into a major problem if you let it get out of hand. Worry not, we’ve got you covered with our complete Cities Skylines 2 Garbage Guide.

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All Garbage Processing Facilities in Cities Skylines 2

There are a total of four buildings used for garbage management in Cities: Skylines 2. Each one has a specific role to play in your ever-expanding city. These buildings can also be upgraded in various ways to help manage your city’s waste as it grows.

Be aware, however, that upgrading your buildings increases their cost, energy outputs, and emissions.

Garbage Management progression tree in Cities Skylines 2
Image Source: Paradox Interactive via Twinfinite

Landfill

The basic and most essential garbage management building. Garbage trucks travel back and forth between the Landfill and your city’s buildings to collect waste. Requires you to set a Landfill Lot area behind it. This can later be adjusted by using the Landfill Lot Tool under Garbage Management.

Unlocked: Milestone 1 – Tiny Village.

Upgrades:

  • Garbage Truck Depot – Adds 10 additional Garbage Trucks to a Landfill. 1 per Landfill.
  • Hazardous Waste Collection Point – Increases Processing Capacity by 1 t/month. Multiple can fit to the sides of 1 Landfill.
  • Waste Recycling Unit – Reduces Ground Pollution by 50%. 1 per Landfill

Incineration Plant

Turns collected garbage into Electricity, but causes air pollution.

Unlocked: Costs 2 Development Points

Upgrades:

  • Extra Incinerator Furnace – Increases rate of Electrical energy production. 1 per Incineration Plant.
  • Garbage Truck Depot – Adds 10 additional Garbage Trucks to an Incineration Plant. 1 per Incineration Plant.
  • Storage Extension – Increases Storage Capacity of Incineration Plant by 250 tonnes. Multiple can fit to the sides of 1 Incineration Plant.

Recycling Center

Collects your city’s garbage and turns it into reusable materials that you can export.

Unlocked: Costs 2 Development Points

Upgrades:

  • Garbage Truck Depot – Adds 10 additional Garbage Trucks to a Recycling Center. 1 per Incineration Plant.
  • Hazardous Waste Collection Point – Processes an additional 1 tonne of garbage per month. Multiple can fit to the sides of 1 Recycling Center.
  • Storage Extension – Increases Storage Capacity of Incineration Plant by 50 tonnes. Multiple can fit to the sides of 1 Recycling Center.

Industrial Waste Processing Site

The largest Garbage Management building. Collects garbage from industrial buildings and lowers your entire city’s Industrial Ground Pollution by 15 percent. Only 1 Industrial Waste Processing Site can be placed on a map.

Unlocked: Costs 8 Development Points

The Industrial Waste Processing Site has no upgrades.

How To Set Up Efficient Garbage Processing Sites in Cities Skylines 2

Placing garbage management facilities anywhere in your city will be enough to keep the rubbish from piling up. However, your citizens may not be too happy about living beside a landfill. Here are some top tips on how to set up an optimal garbage processing site.

Naturally, you’ll want to keep the bulk of your larger garbage processing operation some distance away from your main city. Garbage management buildings produce noise and air pollution, making them unpleasant for your sims to live near.

Still, if you place you will want to place Landfills on the outer edges of your main city to ensure that the garbage trucks are able to keep up with their collections. If the roadworks around your city aren’t well optimized, this can also cause your garbage trucks to get caught up in traffic.

Just keep your larger garbage buildings farther away but ensure there is a highway connecting the two for when it comes time to empty your landfills.

Landfill creation in Cities Skylines 2
Image Source: Paradox Interactive

Similarly, when placing your landfill area, don’t make it big just because you can. Leaving your trash to pile up is a surefire way to make your citizens unhappy, and a smaller landfill will allow more space to upgrade it with Hazardous Waste Collection Points.

Build your main garbage processing facilities, including your Industrial Waste Processing Site, close together and near a Wastewater Treatment Plant and a Power Plant. This way you have enough energy to power your waste processing, and any garbage produced by the Wastewater Plant can be easily collected.

One way to decrease the amount of garbage generated by your citizens is to keep them educated. Educated sims recycle more of their waste, so open up some schools and teach those dirty sims how to clean up after themselves!

How To Check Garbage Stats

To check your city’s Garbage Management menu, press the “i” button in the top right corner of your screen then click the recycling symbol.

Garbage Management menu in Cities Skylines 2
Image Source: Paradox Interactive

From this menu, you can easily check your Garbage Processing Status and Landfill Availability. It will also highlight any Garbage Trucks in your city so you can ensure they aren’t getting stuck in traffic.

Be sure to also keep a check on your city’s ground, air, and noise pollution menus, found on the bottom row of the “i” menu, as all of these attributes are negatively affected by your garbage processing facilities.

How To Empty Landfill in Cities Skylines 2

Your Landfills only have a limited capacity, and before too long they will start to get backed up. You can enlarge your landfill area, or send garbage from one landfill to another, but eventually, you’re going to need to get rid of it for good.

To do this, you will need to set up either an Incineration Plant — to turn the garbage into energy — or a Recycling Center — to turn it into materials you call sell (metals, plastics, textiles, paper).

How to empty landfill in Cities Skylines 2
Image Source: Paradox Interactive via Twinfinite

To send your stored garbage from a Landfill to another garbage processing facility, click on the landfill, then select “Start Emptying” from the bottom of the building menu.

Now your city is clean and your sims are happy.

That’s it for our Cities Skylines 2 Garbage Guide. Be sure to check out the rest of our guides for the game here on Twinfinite, including our tips on how to make money fast.


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James Crosby
James was a freelance writer for Twinfinite, typically covering new releases.