Want to recycle your 3D print scraps? There’s a way that can lower your material costs.
3D print scraps are a bigger thing today than ever before, simply due to the vast use of filament swapping systems. These desktop 3D printer accessories cause print jobs to generate “poop” each time the colour changes. For most cases, the amount of waste exceeds the weight of the print itself. Virtually every desktop 3D printer operator today has bags of poop that usually end up in the local landfill.
Due to the immense amount of waste, many 3D printer operators have become interested in recycling, but there are several big challenges.
The first challenge is that 3D printer waste cannot be sent to local recycling processes. This is because their sorting process requires an official recycling stamp on the piece — that’s how they identify and sort different types of plastic waste. Of course, none of your 3D printer waste has these stamps.
The second is that it is actually quite difficult to decompose most 3D printer waste. It usually requires special environmental conditions and a huge amount of time, which cannot be provided by a 3D printer operator. 3D printer waste cannot be tossed in a simple compost heap. So you’re stuck with it.
The third big issue is that each time a plastic is recycled, it is re-heated. This tends to break down the bonds of the material’s molecules, making each recycle a bit weaker.
This is why very few 3D printer waste services exist. One that we’ve recently encountered is Erike Prints. It’s a small operation that markets recycled PETG and PLA filament, made in their own workshop.
The key challenge to any recycling operation is sourcing the input material. Random collections will have different types of materials and colours, making it very difficult to produce consistent filament.
Erike Prints handles this in a unique manner: you send in a box of waste, and receive a coupon for a free spool of filament; a two-for-one deal, in fact.
Erika Prints uses a very reasonable set of equipment to produce the recycled filament, as shown in their numerous TikTok videos. The process involves grinding scraps, an initial extrusion, a second grinding and second extrusion, finalized by spooling up the resulting filament.
There is no cost to take part in the program, but you will have to pay to ship your scraps to Erika Prints.
Considering ways to dispose of your sack of 3D printer poop? You might take a look at Erika Prints and see if their recycling program could work for you.
Via Erika Prints
