12.5 Matter Replication Recycling

Material that cannot be directly recycled by mechanical or chemical means is stored for matter synthesis recycling. Molecular matrix replicators that dematerialize the waste materials and rematerialize them in the form of desired objects accomplish this. While this process provides a wide variety of useful items, it is very energy intensive and many everyday consumables are recycled by less energy intensive methods. Certain types of consumables are routinely recycled using matter replication because this results in a considerable savings of stored raw material.