Most Efficient Plastic & Rubber Setup
Short answer: with alternate recipes, 60 Plastic/min needs only about 20 crude oil/min instead of 90 — a 78% oil reduction. The trade is more water and power, plus a more complex build. The same holds for Rubber.
Standard vs. optimized (per 60/min)
| Setup | Crude Oil | Water | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard recipe | 90 /min | — | 90 MW |
| Optimized (alternates) | 20 /min | ~67 m³/min | ~128 MW |
Computed with our optimizer (minimizing crude oil) from official game data. Plastic and Rubber give the same figures.
Why it works: the recycled loop
The trick is that Recycled Plastic is made from Rubber + Fuel, and Recycled Rubber is made from Plastic + Fuel. Run both together and they feed each other, so most of your plastic and rubber comes from recycling rather than fresh crude oil. The fuel side is stretched with Diluted Fuel (Heavy Oil Residue + water), which is why optimized setups trade crude oil for water. A small amount of fresh oil seeds the loop.
Is it worth it?
- Oil-limited map? Absolutely — 78% less crude oil is huge when oil nodes are your bottleneck.
- Early game / simple base? The standard recipe (90 oil, no water, fewer buildings) is far simpler; the loop only pays off at scale.
- Power-limited? Note the optimized loop draws more power and water, so weigh it against your grid.
Open the optimizer, choose Plastic or Rubber, set “minimize Crude Oil”, and it lists the exact recipes and machine counts — including the byproduct loops.