When you have collected raw materials from away missions or from ag-sec, you must refine them in the ship’s recycler before you can utilize them. Fortunately, using the recycler is free due to the ship taking functionally miniscule amounts from each recycling process. In-game, you will not be ‘taxed’ any resources, but this is the in-universe explanation for why it’s a free-to-use system.When you’re ready to recycle your materials into Atomics, proceed to the Recycler terminal.

You will need to do the following:

1. Scan your Occupant ID (found at the bottom of your Essex app or from your Occupant Profile)
2. Scan each material you wish to refine, placing it in the Recycler inbox after scanned
3. Press “Continue to Processing” to complete the Refining
4. View the results at the terminal, pressing “Finish Refining” when done
5. View the resulting Atomics in your Essex bank account

When you’re ready to start, you’ll see this screen:

Hold your RIG up to the scanner, showing your ID and the camera will pick it up. Once your ID has scanned successfully, you will see the following (based on your Occupant)

Now that it recognizes you as the person performing the refining, it knows that all refined Atomics will be transferred to your Essex Bank Account.

As you scan materials, you will see the following:

The table at the bottom reveals information about the materials that were previously hidden (though in the future, there will be RIG upgrades that let you see this information before you harvest the materials). 

In the columns marked “Atomic 1, 2, 3” and “Trace”, it will show you the Atomic ‘fragments’ you collected. These are pieces of atomics that convert 5-1 to usable-for-crafting Atomics. For example: once you collect 5 Iron (Fe) fragments, they will convert to 1 Iron Atomic that is your crafting item. Each element is shown by the Atomic abbreviation along with how many fragments that item contains. At this time, 3 is the highest number you’re going to get from a raw material and there is a low chance of getting 3. Zero is the lowest likelihood and least you can get of a particular atomic.

Once you’re done scanning, you may press “Continue to Processing” and the Recycler will begin calculating your results.:

Once complete, you will see the final results:

Inside your Essex Bank Account, you will not see owned Atomic fragments. However, they are stored there. When you complete the refining process, the system will look into your account and figure out if you have any fragments, combining them with the new fragments you’ve collected. These will be converted into Atomics and they, plus any remaining fragments, will be deposited into your account.