The Reclamation Authority controls an estimated 60% of all scrap metal, electronic waste, and salvageable material processing in GLMZ's lower tiers. What began as a loose network of Shelf junk dealers has evolved into a vertically integrated cartel that collects, sorts, processes, and resells the material byproducts of a city that consumes technology at an extraordinary rate and discards it almost as fast. In GLMZ, where rare earth elements are imported at tremendous cost and the corponations' supply chains are optimized for new production rather than recycling, controlling scrap is controlling a parallel resource economy worth an estimated 2.1 billion per year.

The Authority was consolidated in 2189 by Bram Dekker-Okonjo, a former Shelf scrap dealer who recognized that the thousands of independent junk traders in the lower tiers were competing against each other while the real value -- processed, sorted, refined raw materials -- was being captured by corporate recycling firms that paid scrap dealers pennies and sold refined output for thousands. Dekker-Okonjo spent six years buying, intimidating, and absorbing independent operations until the Authority controlled enough supply to set prices. Now, if you want refined copper, reclaimed titanium, salvaged circuit boards, or any of the hundreds of materials that flow through Meridian's waste stream, you negotiate with the Authority or you pay corporate rates that are three to five times higher.

The Authority operates massive sorting and processing facilities in the Shelf's industrial zones -- open-air operations that employ thousands of workers in conditions that range from acceptable to nightmarish depending on the material being processed. Electronic waste reclamation involves exposure to heavy metals, toxic solvents, and carcinogenic compounds. The Authority provides protective equipment that is better than nothing and worse than adequate. Workers accept these conditions because the alternative is no employment at all, and the Authority pays better than most Shelf employers. This is not a humanitarian organization -- it is a cartel that has discovered that controlling garbage is more profitable and less contested than controlling drugs or weapons.