Spool and Filament Waste Management: Ideas, Advice, Resources?

[arthurmsarthur 0]

Good Morning Everyone, 

 

I am reaching out to you guys to hear experiences about a systemic way to re-purpose/recycle empty spools and leftover filament.

 

As you can see in the picture, we have a lot of empty spools and leftover filament (leftover bits from Material Station) that we have been accumulating over the months. I tried to research online but everything I find are gimmicky ways to re-purpose spools, but that is not really a solution once we start talking about the hundreds of thousands of spools that are being manufactured and discarded every day within our 3D printing market. I reached out to some manufacturers and resellers of filaments and it seems this is not really a concern for any of them, so I decided to reach out to you guys, as users, to see what are your thoughts about it? Any short-term and long-term solution you guys had adopted for this issue of plastic waste?

Feel like I will also be sharing the page for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 12 (https://sdgcompass.org/sdgs/sdg-12/) . Great resource for businesses and individuals when trying to find ways to make our living and modus operandi more sustainable. 

 

[tabiznet 3]

I take my spools to recycling center unless they're the re-usable type. I'm saving all of my waste filament sorted in 50 gallon drums for experimenting with extruding my own filament later. Once I get a full drum I'll start experimenting with that

[AndersK 59]

I return empty spools and waste material (PLA only so far) to my supplier