Recycle Your Old 3D Prints
- Posted on
- By Maira
- Posted in 3d printing, recycled filament, recycling, recycling 3D prints, sustainability
Do you want to throw away old 3D prints sustainably? Consider recycling them and contributing to a circular economy!
One of the most important things regarding sustainability in 3D printing is the disposal of waste. In most cases, this refers to leftover waste from the actual printing process—for example, support material or failed prints. We consider this our responsibility, and make sure it all gets recycled. However, as customers, you might also have some old 3D prints which you want to dispose of—maybe your company has developed a new prototype and doesn't need the old one anymore, or maybe you’re just doing some spring cleaning at your workplace. Either way, (luckily) there are ways you can do this sustainably!
Materials
Of course, getting rid of waste sustainably depends on the materials it’s made of. The two materials we print with most often are PLA (polylactic acid) and PETG (polyethylene terephthalate glycol), and chances are the products we made for you are made of one of these. Unfortunately, if you want to recycle these, you can’t just throw them in with your other plastic recycling.
How we sort materials for recycling.
PETG
PETG is a thermoplastic made from fossil fuels. As you can imagine, its production isn’t environmentally friendly. Luckily, it can be processed for recycling and be reused many times, decreasing the need to make new, virgin material. In the case of 3D printing, a printed product made from PETG can be recycled into filament again, and used to print a new product. You can also request that we print your order in recycled filament (like this one), to decrease your environmental impact even more!
PLA
PLA is also a thermoplastic, but it’s made from renewable resources like corn or sugar cane. It’s biodegradable and compostable, meaning it can be broken down by enzymes. This sounds good, but is unfortunately only true on paper. PLA is not biodegradable in nature. In fact, it takes almost as long to decompose as other plastics. It is compostable, but not in at-home compost bins. It is only industrially compostable, and there aren’t many composting plants which accept PLA because the process is too slow. The only viable option for getting rid of PLA waste (from 3D printing) sustainably is recycling. Just like PETG, it is turned into filament and used again to print with!
Our PLA recycling bin.
Recycling
Recycling these 2 plastics doesn’t need to be complicated. We already recycle all the waste we create by shipping it to a recycling company in Germany called Recycling Fabrik. They’re a startup that accepts 3D printing waste from both private individuals and other companies. If your company frequently makes use of 3D printing in your products or prototypes, and you also have a lot of 3D prints to get rid of, you can send your waste to them too. They’re aware of the fact that you might want your prototypes to stay private, and offer ‘data protection-compliant recycling’. They also provide you with a shipping label so that your recycling is free of cost! If you meet the minimum weight requirement of 2kg, don’t hesitate to send it directly to Recycling Fabrik, or contact them for more info! They will sort it, shred it, wash it, and heat it to form new strands of filament.
Another option for recycling is to search for a drop-off point on the Prusa World Map, which has the location of many small-scale recycling projects around the world. You can use it to find the one that is closest to you, as well as which materials they accept, and their contact details.
There are many options to ensure that you can get rid of old 3D prints sustainably. If you need any advice or further information, feel free to contact us!