What To Do With 3d Printer Scraps?

[Reefer Matt]

Hey everyone! I got into 3d printing a month ago, and have made some cool things for reefing. I like designing and trying out new items, but the waste can really pile up from filament changes and failed prints. My area doesn’t offer recycling, and I saw that petg and pla aren’t commonly recycled anyway. A $6000 filament recycler is not an option for me either. So what do you do with all those scraps? Thanks!

 

[tedfisher496]

mine go in the trash with the rest of the plastic we use. Unfortunately most plastics are not recyclable anyway.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

i have purchased silicone molds, and taken the scraps of many different colors, some of them being glow in the dark, and stuffed them into the molds. made clear epoxy cups, pencil holders, vases, light bulbs, and anything else you can find at michaels or online as far as silicone molds go. then i give them to people instead of putting a ton of plastic trash in my trash and thinking im not making a big problem for someone elses children. Why ? because it seals all of my disgusting plastic that is horrible for the environment somewhere (inside resin) that it should, hopefully, never cause the 3d printing hobby to earn a reputation as people who dont care about making sure the properly use a ton of non-recyclable materials

 

[Reefer Matt]

i have purchased silicone molds, and taken the scraps of many different colors, some of them being glow in the dark, and stuffed them into the molds. made clear epoxy cups, pencil holders, vases, light bulbs, and anything else you can find at michaels or online as far as silicone molds go. then i give them to people instead of putting a ton of plastic trash in my trash and thinking im not making a big problem for someone elses children. Why ? because it seals all of my disgusting plastic that is horrible for the environment somewhere (inside resin) that it should, hopefully, never cause the 3d printing hobby to earn a reputation as people who dont care about making sure the properly use a ton of non-recyclable materials

I like that idea! My daughter likes to make epoxy things, so I might be able to do a combined project with her now. Thanks!

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

What would be awesome is if households could start treating their 3D printers as a way to cut down on every day costs to make themselves happier. Then we can start treating the waste as something that is, at the end of the day, absolutely waste. There are YouTube videos of people taking their filament, showing how it can be repurposed right back into filament or countless trillions of other things, we are at a time unfortunately where the lack of information is doing nothing but hurting anyone other than the ones who are making money from it. The next logical step in my opinion would be to start thinking there are a ton of houses in the world making a ton of scrap plastic, so lets either make a third bin for them, or another logical-ish system, and there can be a truck on Tuesday mornings to come get it, along with my trash and recyling each week. a truck paid for by the the wonderful government our tax money fills the pockets of, to make sure the world stays in order (lol) , they can make some people drive around in a truck and come get it. i also have pretty much mastered the art of shipping, so if i would have to ship it somewhere in a box, i would just save one of the boxes of filament i normally use to ship my items and fill it with confetti

 

[Tavero]

Hey everyone! I got into 3d printing a month ago, and have made some cool things for reefing. I like designing and trying out new items, but the waste can really pile up from filament changes and failed prints. My area doesn’t offer recycling, and I saw that petg and pla aren’t commonly recycled anyway. A $6000 filament recycler is not an option for me either. So what do you do with all those scraps? Thanks!

As long as you don't deal with a literal ton of waste plastic, it's not worth it to do anything else with it than throw it into the garbage can. It's not worth to start a new hobby over a few pounds of waste plastic.

Our garbage goes into a waste incinerator plant anyway instead of a landfill so the CO2 of pla goes back where it came from a few months ago.

 

[Liftoff]

If the materials are not mixed together and PLA stayed with PLA, ABS with ABS etc. you could make a project and built a recycler that gives you a new filament roll.

CnC kitchen did a video on that a while ago and also has newer ones on that topic (down to doing filament from plastic bottles) always very detailed and thorough :)