What would you do with the waste?

[mnis 11]

Hi at all

Even after the successful production of objects creates smaller and larger amounts of waste, such as support materials. Then there are always material residues, because of failed starts, or incorrect settings, testings, as well as problems in material handling, etc.

Waste separation is mandatory for us. Honestly, I have no idea what exactly is happening with all the separate waste at the end.

Nevertheless:

There are house waste (residual waste), paper waste, glass waste, organic waste, special waste for hazardous materials and electrical appliances, as well as blocking waste for furniture.

So, what to do with PLA, ABS, nylon, and all the different materials?

Currently I dispose of these wastes on the, in our so-called normal residual waste / house-waste. Then there are the filament coils, which are often very well made, and should not be simply thrown away, i think.

So what are you doing with this very special waste?

Markus

 

[skint 61]

Markus At the moment I have large piles of waste sitting around in the office. I kept the different colours separate, a blue tub, a silver tub, black tub etc etc. With the hope that one day somebody would design and produce the perfect little plastic recycling unit so I could use up all this old plastics.

I think its about time I just threw it in the bin

 

[Nicolinux 288]

Same here. I kept them hoping to recycle them at some point. But since filement quality is quite important, I don't see myself producing quality filament at home in the near future. So I am throwing broken prints away.

 

[irongland 1]

I keep my waste materials separate thinking that one day I might try melting a bunch of the PLA and use it to fill in a print so you have a much more solid feeling object (using the discarded prints to boot!). Haven't read anything about a process like this tough.

If you are interested in recycling your prints check out filabot (http://www.filabot.com/), they claim that their filabot can produce filament for your printer, and they sell a grinder to grind failed prints for use for said filastruder thing. Honestly it looks pretty cool.

 

[jbeale 0]

I keep my waste materials separate thinking that one day I might try melting a bunch of the PLA and use it to fill in a print so you have a much more solid feeling object (using the discarded prints to boot!).

 

I think this might work: pause the print and manually, using an extruder with a large nozzle, 1mm or more (less likely to clog on any dirt) inject the recycled plastic down in the infill area for strengthening. Or, I suppose this operation could be automatic using a 2nd head.

That ought to improve part strength along the Z axis that can otherwise be low due to the layer bonding.

You could even use mixed plastic colors (= mud color) since it would be infill and not visible on the outside, unless your main material is translucent.

 

[wattsekunde 0]

If the DIY 3D printing market grows so on I'm sure there will be some companies where you can send your waste. And if you send it well sorted maybe they pay a little for it. ;-)

 

[duesentrieb 0]

I am collecting it, seperated by colors. A filastruder or my version of it is on my list on number three. So sooner or later I will be making my own filament. Let´s see how it works. needs some experience to get good filament, but can´t be too difficult. Others have done it before and are quite pleased with thw quality they get.

If the DIY 3D printing market grows so on I'm sure there will be some companies where you can send your waste. And if you send it well sorted maybe they pay a little for it. :wink:

True! And very good from an environmental perspective. If I have the Filabot, next project will be a shredder. I am curious how recycled bottles print...

 

[valcrow 144]

What about those spools?? They take so much space, and it seems like a waste to just throw them away when they're perfectly good... There should be a spool trade in program. 10 spools for a free Roll.

 

[renthal 8]

What about those spools?? They take so much space, and it seems like a waste to just throw them away when they're perfectly good... There should be a spool trade in program. 10 spools for a free Roll.

 

That sounds good but shipping out 10 spools would cost almost as much as buying the new roll. If the spools are ABS they would make for great plastic stock for home brew filament if you can grind them down enough.

I think if the filament companies were to design 2 piece spools that are reloadable would be great. That way you have the option to buy a complete spool or if you already have a few empty 2 piece spools you simply order a refill spool that is wound on some sort of easy to recycle cardboard center for a few dollars less. Then you have less expence and waist.

 

[cez_etc 0]

If I have the Filabot, next project will be a shredder. I am curious how recycled bottles print...

 

Re: printing recycled bottles

IIRC from a talk at FabCon PET is an extremely tricky printing material and one of the NGOs (either Techfortrade or Better Future Factory) involved in recycling projects actually gave up on 3D printing PET and developed an low-tech injecting moulding process instead.

However, PP works quite well.

 

[duesentrieb 0]

Re: printing recycled bottles

IIRC from a talk at FabCon PET is an extremely tricky printing material and one of the NGOs (either Techfortrade or Better Future Factory) involved in recycling projects actually gave up on 3D printing PET and developed an low-tech injecting moulding process instead.

However, PP works quite well.

 

Won t be easy. If I do this I will start with the waste I have and mix it with virgin pellets for a start. And if it is only buying a larger amount of PLA or ABS pellets, sharing with others and make filament of it. The peller prices I heard are about 1-2 Euro per Kilogramm, compared to 20-40 for a 1kg spool. Only makes sense when you want to experiment and have the time for it and really need large amounts of filament. Also possible, that it is only a learing project and you find out its too much work per spool and you cannot reach the quality level you want... Whatever. I think it might be worth a try.

 

[ian 32]

i sometimes sell a few little things on ebay and use my waste PLA to pack things in the boxes. Its better than me simply buying extra packaging material.

Ian :-)

 

[feik 0]

This is an interesting blog entry about 3D printing material recycling http://i.materialise.com/blog/entry/recycling-3d-printing-materials-4-possible-solutions

They say that PLA is quite difficult to recycle, but the post is more than 3 years old so I hope some processes are already in place to recycle them.

About creating a recycling bot for creating new filament from residues (excluding the fact re-heating a plastic can change its properties even if it is a thermo-plastic) one of the trickiest things would be the diameter tolerances I guess.