Reply To: 3D printing and the enviroment #teamseas

[blinky465 17028xp 0]

It feels like we’re in danger of comparing two things (at least, when talking about 3d printing).

ABS filament isn’t recycleable (easily) and PLA is a corn-starch based product (I think it smells lovely when printing, like sugary popcorn). We all seem to agree that resin is “full of nasty toxins” but nobody *actually* knows what goes into it – other than the labels are a bit scary and it comes from China (where they don’t have strict environmental laws) so it’s probably full of chinesium or something.

BUT – as long as a 3d printed mini has acrylic paint on it, and is sitting proudly on a display shelf, it’s not “environmental waste”. It’s only waste once it’s thrown in the bin!

If we’re going to get hung up on the “carbon footprint of creating the printer” (as discussed earlier in the thread) then we’ve wandered off the original topic which was “what do you do with your failed prints, left over supports and test prints” (and for a true comparison with boxed sets would need to investigate the carbon footprint of setting up a factory!).

The truth is, most of it goes in the bin. I probably consider myself an exception to most 3d printer users because I’ve been tinkering with them for more than 10 years and *have* built homebrew plastic grinders, made shonky injection moulding machines and built machines to recycle 3d prints into printer filament (even if the end result isn’t as good as “virgin” filament). After all, it’s still just a thermoplastic. But I understand that most people haven’t.

So, yeah, I “chug it (cured resin supports) in the bin”.

But do so knowing I’m throwing far less in the bin than I would if I was buying the same number of minis in retail boxed sets! And until I bin my collection of minis, the only environment they’re impacting is my own living space 😉