Laravel's factory system introduces the recycle method, allowing efficient reuse of model instances across multiple factory calls. This feature is particularly valuable when creating complex data structures with shared relationships.

// Basic recycling
$category = Category::factory()->create();
$products = Product::factory()
    ->count(3)
    ->recycle($category)
    ->create();

Let's explore a practical example of an e-commerce testing environment:

<?php

namespace Tests;

use App\Models\Store;
use App\Models\Product;
use App\Models\Category;
use App\Models\Order;
use Tests\TestCase;

class StoreTest extends TestCase
{
    public function test_can_generate_sales_report()
    {
        // Create base structure
        $store = Store::factory()->create();
        $categories = Category::factory()
            ->count(3)
            ->recycle($store)
            ->create();

        // Create products in categories
        $products = Product::factory()
            ->count(20)
            ->recycle($store)
            ->recycle($categories)
            ->create();

        // Generate orders using same products
        $orders = Order::factory()
            ->count(50)
            ->recycle($store)
            ->recycle($products)
            ->create()
            ->each(function ($order) use ($products) {
                // Add 1-5 random products to each order
                $orderProducts = $products->random(rand(1, 5));
                $order->products()->attach(
                    $orderProducts->pluck('id')->mapWithKeys(function ($id) {
                        return [$id => ['quantity' => rand(1, 5)]];
                    })
                );
            });
        // Test report generation
        $report = $store->generateSalesReport();

        $this->assertNotNull($report);
        $this->assertEquals(50, $report->total_orders);
    }
}

The recycle method significantly improves factory performance by reusing existing models instead of creating new instances for each relationship.