Currently, there is a very limited number of public initiatives to take post-consumer plastics (PCP) from scrap to reusable filament. Although there is a list of plastic shredders and filament recycling machines available on the market, they are typically extremely expensive and time-consuming, making them unattainable for individual use, forcing people that want to pursue it to make DIY and hacked versions that often produce sub-par results.
Systems
The idea of paying for recycling — and spending the effort to order, box up and ship your scraps might be too much for many desktop 3D printer operators, who are notoriously frugal when it comes to spending.
Kerry Stevenson, Fabbaloo 3D Printing News
Filabot has partnered with TerraCycle, to create the TerraCycle 3D Print Zero Waste Boxes (only available in the US). A system that affords 3D printer users the option to send their printing scraps in to be recycled into reusable filament sold by Filabot. The system is very expensive and offers not much in return to the person donating the scraps (other than the satisfaction of responsibly dealing with their waste) as only the shipping back to Filabot is covered. The system charges (all in USD) $85 for a small 11x11x20″ box, $150 for a medium 11x11x40″ box, and $250 for a large 15x15x37″ box.
Credit: Filabot
William Sloth (high school junior from Rochester, NY) created the non-profit company Project PLA after finding it very difficult to properly compost his PLA scraps from 3D printing. Trying to find a facility that would recycle his PLA 3D printing scraps proved difficult as “the material requires an industrial composting facility, of which there are only 113 in the U.S. Only about 25 percent of those facilities accept residential waste,” typically because of the amount of oxygen required to compost the batch (Molitch-Hou, 2019). Sloth said that further research led to the conclusion that “the few operations that do accept PLA, for example, will require it delivered in industrial-sized quantities,” so he created Project PLA to overcome these barriers. How it works is the consumer buys an empty box (cost includes shipping and recycling expenses) that ranges in size from 8x8x8” to 20x20x20” and priced accordingly, or the customer can send the scrap PLA directly costing $3.49US/lb ($7.68US/kg).
Credit: Project PLA
Machines
Filabot is one of the more expensive filament extruders on the market, priced at $10,899US, including the accessories such as the filament diameter sensor and cooling bath. The promise of longevity and quality as well as efficient customer service is a proud statement of the company.
Credit: Filabot
Filastruder was one of the first companies to create a commercial extruder for recycled filament. Their machines are priced well below Filabots, reflecting quality, longevity, and design differences at $299.99US.
Credit: Filastruder
Protocycler by ReDeTec, created by Dennon Oosterman (a UBC alumni), is $1,999.99US one of the more affordable machines on the market, opting for a single unit as opposed to Filabot’s modular set up, making repairs more difficult and expensive.
Credit: ReDeTec
3Devo‘s composer series is another expensive option, with quality, compactness, and ease of use as its main attributes, priced at $6,840US for the Composer 350 and $8,094US for the Composer 450.
Credit: 3Devo
DIY and unorthodox system instruction and tutorials are prevalent online, such as the examples below.
Credit: ianmcmill
Credit: Delta 3D Printer
Credit: diy chen
My Two Sent.’s: I think the TerraCycle 3D Print Zero Waste Boxes system is brilliant, but rather expensive for the user sending in the scrap filament with not much in return other than the satisfaction of recycling filament. With this project, I hope to tackle this issue, starting locally, with a small community of 3D printers, potentially expanding if there is a high interest from people.
Filabot. (n.d.). TERRACYCLE 3D PRINT ZERO WASTE BOXES. https://www.filabot.com/products/terracycle-zero-waste-boxes?variant=12808007745570
Molitch-Hou, M. (April, 2019). What They Don’t Tell You About 3D Printing PLA. Engineering.com. https://www.engineering.com/3DPrinting/3DPrintingArticles/ArticleID/18956/What-They-Dont-Tell-You-About-3D-Printing-PLA.aspx
Stevenson, K. (January, 2020). Project PLA Hopes To Solve The 3D Printing Waste Challenge. Fabbaloo 3D Printing News. https://www.fabbaloo.com/blog/2020/1/27/project-pla-hopes-to-solve-the-3d-printing-waste-challenge