Green Credentials

[Franny500 9]

I was wondering what peoples' thoughts are on the hugely important issue of "green credentials" within 3d printing?

I understand that 3d printing is helping streamline lots of manufacturing processes so will be reducing the number of emissions from factories and warehouses, etc, and that there are lots of materials that are made to be eco-friendly, so that is certainly two huge ticks so far.

But can anyone else shed anymore light onto this situation?

[Franny500 9]

Is this in the correct section? Anyone suggest a better category to post in?

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi Franny500, no this category is fine!

I think it is not perse a 3D printing thing, but you notice it all across different business landscapes, people and business seem to become more aware.

For 3D printing it can have a lot of effects, I'll just name a few which come to mind fastest without going to much in-depth. Some of them are not happening yet, but when 3D printing becomes bigger they should come in play more.

I don't think at one point everyone will print everything, so we are talking about a certain range of products.

3D printing ignites innovations, hand in hand with globalisation it allows innovators to work together with each other with just a few mouse clicks away. Where you are based, or aren't based, no longer has to be relevant and bright minds can connect. An increase in technology makes things more efficient and can better our footprint.

With more 3D printers in or around homes there is a smaller need to ship finished products all around. This means less shipping, i.e. less pollution.

Less packaging material, less waste. Less stock, from which you don't know if you sell it all, less waste. And less waste of materials creating that stock.

Currently FDM uses mostly thermo-plastics as material for 3D printing. Luckily we also see

amazing initiatives like Better Future Factory and Refil who help making this industrial revolution into a sustainable revolution!

And we have another really cool story coming out this week.

If you don't want to miss any of our stories, in your settings you can enable your notifications so you'll get a notification when we publish a new story.

What is your opinion on the green credentials? What do you think of the prior mentioned (potential) solutions?

[Franny500 9]

Brilliant post, thanks for the detailed reply.

I hadn't thought too much about it until a lady asked, I mentioned about the filament companies edging towards greener materials; and also about the manufacturing processes being reduced hence factory emissions are decreased. So 3d printing is striving to extend our time on this planet as a species.

Never knew about  Better Future Factory and Refil. Brilliant stories! I'll be using that in my quest to educate people on 3d printers in the future.

And thanks also for the settings link, I was getting notifications but it's good to tweak the dashboard.

Thanks again for the post, I'll look forward to reading more from you

[SandervG 1,521]

Here is the other story I was talking about. Project Seafood, super cool!