“The circle of life, you know? Most important thing on this ship is us. Without recyclers, nobody eats, nobody breathes, nothing gets made, and we're all up to our necks in dirt and broken toys. May not be pretty, but don't let nobody tell you we ain't important.”
Joe White, Recycling operative

The recycling department is responsible for several of the most vital ship-board operations, and has manned stations in every sector of the ship. In a closed environment like a generation ship, resources are extremely finite and have to last. The recycling department is responsible for ensuring that they do.

They ensure the vast “alchemy” facilities in the depths of the ship are kept fed with suitably sorted bite size chunks of whatever for reprocessing. Deep in these machines the waste is broken down into its constituent atoms and reassembled into suitable feedstocks for the vast number of fabbers on board.

All food produced on board ship is created in the hydroponics labs; carefully tended trays of plant matter (primarily algae), dark cupboards of fungus and vats of meat-like substance. The nutrients that support these are very exact chemical formulae, calculated long ago, and are primarily extracted from biological waste products.

Despite years of careful breeding and tending, fungus and algae have very distinctive flavours and textures. Careers have been made on successfully creating even the slightest variation on these. After three generations of pale green gloop, dark green crunchy gloop is to be celebrated.

In addition to food, most of the ship's oxygen is produced as a byproduct of the edible algae. However, there are also areas of green in most sectors, large, tall rooms with palm and date trees towering in the center, ferns, spider plants and lilies sprawling over all available surfaces and sending long green tendrils cascading from stepped walls. These are popular with local residents and the department of Harmony as places of relaxation, and most have benches or comfortable rocks strewn amongst them. Recycling crew put up with this, though many would much prefer to have the areas cordoned off to prevent idiots stepping on their precious plants.

Engineering are always crying out for one type of part, material or substance that they've run out of. Requisitions officers are there to hunt down these items, requisitioning them from less needy uses if needed. It is not wise to anger a requisitions officer, as next time they are short of components, maybe they'll come looking at your compartment's food fabricator first…

In addition to the rush job requisitions, requisitions handle the collection and reclamation of components and device that have reached the end of their useful life and need to be reprocessed and reissued. This feeds into the other important job and ultimate aim of the recycling department: keeping the fabbers fed with the correct feedstocks. It is not uncommon for some fabbers to be frequently out of the scarcer ingredients, and indeed a fully stocked fabber is a rarity, but they are normally supplied with at least the minimum requirements for them to be operational, and some components can use substituted materials with only a small performance penalty.

Hoarders are the bane of the Recycling department, and operate against the good of all on board. Requisitions officers have no qualms about ordering discovered hoarders to share what they have, and the Computer will usually back them up.

Deep in the depths of the ship lie machines that used to go ping, lights that used to flicker and occasionally people who used to breathe. Whereas the preventative maintenance department scour the depths of the ship fixing things that need to continue working, exploratory reclamation set out to recycle those things that clearly no longer serve a useful purpose, and that the ship can clearly do without. Sometimes these items are big and require a large expedition to recover and drag back to the fabber bays where they can be broken down and their constituents recovered.

It is not unusual for expeditions to last several weeks, and durations are limited only by the scarcity of working food replicators and the amount of stuff one can carry. Those who do this job can expect to spend weeks away from home on a regular basis.

Biological reprocessing is the euphemism used for the breakdown of dead people into useful materials that are recycled for the good of all. The people who work here have a reputation for ghoulishness, but most of them understand that their job is not particularly popular, and go out of their way to be extra nice and friendly to people. They work closely with marshals to deal with problem cases. There are a surprising number of Followers of the Executive working here, who see it as part of their philosophical duty to bring the rest of the crew to a better place.

Mordecai White is the current head of Recycling. A former ACTP member, he is known for his organised approach to leadership.

Jenny Green was the amiable head of Recycling, a woman in her early thirties with a slightly annoying habit of over-using 'motivational' phrases and sayings - “What goes around comes around, eh?”. Despite this, she is competent and always seems to be able to keep track of events in her department, with a talent for organisation surpassed by none.

Guy Bouillon, the much beloved genetic engineer and hydroponics worker, is famed throughout the ship as the man responsible for discovering that fiddlehead ferns were edible, and deliciously crunchy when steamed.

Ben “Gecko” Blue is a talented reclaimer and prominent member of the cartographers guild. He is rarely around, spending most of his time exploring the hidden parts of the ship, but it is said he has access to parts of the ship nobody else has even heard of, and is often able to get rare components, to the delight of Engineering.

Player characters who are part of this faction will be added here.