The "basic" idea (which is funny to say, since the last three things I posted were all complicated, and all programmer-y-like, without actually speaking in a programming language) is that bots can turn waste into energy for a rather large amount of permanent waste.
This way, unless it's that bot's niche, or the bot reproduces insanely, it's much better to just shoot the waste, or give it to an unsuspecting victim.
To convert waste into energy, it'd be by setting a simple gene to how much waste you want to convert, which might be limited by something like (Body/50). Or just a flat out 25.
Like with photosynthesis, the program'll let you expend more energy then needed, allowing as a submethod for energy to vanish from the simulation, so there can be an addition of energy to the simulation.
Unlike most methods of conversion, which I suggested in the photosynthesis topic, waste conversion won't generate waste.
But it is pretty good energy, considering how much darned waste some bots can generate. You could hijack them, and steal it all! Or maybe harvest it from the enviroment, or something!
Anyway, to get back on the subject, you should gain 1 energy per waste. Not very efficient.
Considering it'll also get you 0.05 pwaste per waste!
But in the programming language, you'd actually gain 2 energy per waste, and lose 1 energy per waste that you attempt to convert.
So if every cycle, you try to turn 100 waste into 100 energy, and all you really get is 1 waste per cycle, that's 99 energy you're losing. Per cycle, even!
That means that you have to be smart about converting waste. Which also means that not every bot can do it successfully, and only a specialized bot should attempt such a lifestyle.