I was born with an over-developed sense of guilt. Consequently, I expend an inordinate amount of energy trying to do no harm. The older I get and the more aware I become of the world around me, I recognize that some of my interests may not be aligned with good stewardship of this planet, its inhabitants, and its resources. Darn it! When we started 3D printing two years ago, I realized instantly that it was going to be hard stomaching the plastic waste we yield with each print. I took a snapshot of this morning’s waste (posted above) to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. Mind you, my livelihood and future depend on the success of our 3D printing business, so while I would love to do my share of greenwashing, my overdeveloped sense of guilt won’t let me.
The Problem with Plastic
According to a 2019 National Geographic article, our throwaway culture puts round 8 million tons of microplastics in the ocean each year. Keep in mind plastic takes a few hundred years to break down, so this pollution will affect us for lifetimes to come .
Okay, but what about bioplastics like polylactide (PLA) used in some of our favorite 3D printing filaments? Aren’t those supposed to be made of starches from corn? I keep reading all these feel-good stories about how “green” 3D printing filaments are when compared to other plastics, and it seems feasible that if a plastic isn’t petroleum based, but rather plant based, it must be okay for the environment. Right? My training as an academic won’t let me enjoy anything at face value, so I’ve had to dig deeper in my research about the materials I use.
At first blush, PLA is a renewable and biodegradable thermoplastic that decomposes, forming carbon dioxide and water. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? What the feel good stories often fail to share is that this bioplastic only breaks down under very specific conditions, and not necessarily in soil, consumer composting, or landfills. We aren’t taking full advantage of PLA as a resource.
What about PETG?
While we started our printing journey solely using PLA filaments, we have switched almost exclusively to using polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) because it is UV resistant and hydrophobic and perfect for our outdoor products. However, like PLA and other plastics, it also takes years upon years to break down, so we are back at the same problem of harming our environment. Of course this fact tugs at my conscience, but my inner Jiminy Cricket guides me to actively seek solutions, and in researching PETG and other filaments, I am starting to see a path to responsible production.
3D Printing and Responsible Production
It would be wonderful if an eco friendly plastic finds its way into the market in the near future, and I have no doubts this is an eventuality. In the meantime, let’s not overlook the positive ways 3D printing reduces our carbon footprint.
Rapid Prototyping
Both Erika and I are thrilled about our newfound ability to build a prototype quickly through 3D printing. In our years as graphic designers working with consumer products, we had to wait weeks for prototypes to be tooled, produced, and shipped from our factories in China. Keep in mind, design is iterative, so any revision to that prototype translated to more time waiting for the new tooling, production, and shipment of the next version. Now that we can produce our own designs onsite, we are able to create a new product, test it, redesign it, test it again, do some final tweaks, and then release it to the market in a matter of days. Not only is this speed an asset to our business, we aren’t contributing to the massive pollution caused by constantly shipping merchandise overseas. Shipping containers put out 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emission yearly.
Print on Demand
When I was earning my MBA, I learned a lot about inventory, and I started to see the folly of some of my previous employers who had massive warehouses of merchandise and materials. It costs a lot of money to house physical goods, as well as raw materials for production. But with 3D printing, we don’t have to store any extra product: we simply produce an item once a customer has purchased it. 3D printing allows manufacturers to reduce (or like us, eliminate) warehouse space and improve inventory efficiency. Waste not, want not!
Also, without having to warehouse goods or ship to retailers, we have no need for the use of extra packaging. We don’t have to use shipper boxes (one big box to hold, store, and ship multiple boxes within), nor do we use point -of-purchase displays to store and display merchandise within a store. This may not sound like a big deal, but it really is: we are using considerably less packaging material we would otherwise have used if we had to store and ship inventory for distribution.
Using Less Material
We design our work digitally, and then use a separate application to “slice” it, or to generate the code that plots the design with XYZ-axis coordinates. Slicer applications let users know exactly how many grams of filament is used to print an object. This is helpful in that we know how much filament to keep on hand to fulfill our orders. We can also program the amount of infill (the unseen plastic inside the model) so each item produced is exactly as strong as it needs to be and no more. Slicer applications make production extremely efficient and help conserve material.
Additionally, as All3dp.Pro points out, “an engine part prototype requires far less material to 3D print than to machine from a block of metal. A plastic prototype of a functional door hinge can also be 3D printed as one part instead of injection molded from three separate molds and then assembled.” This makes me think of my woodworking, where the miser in me plans each cut to maximize the material I’ve purchased; but no matter what, I still end up creating a lot of waste through scraps and sawdust. While 3D printing creates some waste (take another gander at photo I posted at the top of the page!), it’s considerably less than what is produced from milling and machining.
Recycling
In doing my research on the waste we are producing in our business, I learned that PLA and PETG are recyclable. I’m ashamed I didn’t research this earlier! But in my defense, it’s not too easy to recycle these plastics. They are classified with a Resin Identifier Code of “7” which means that municipal recycling programs won’t take them, but other types of recycling centers may. I didn’t know this, as I never thought to look beyond my recycling center. Now that I know other options exist, I’m going to find out how and where to recycle my filament waste. I promise to share in a future post what I learn.
Another option is to recycle one’s own filament by re-extruding it. This would require building a filament extruder, which sounds daunting! Fortunately, Erika and I are up to task after building all of our printers and adding MMU upgrades to some of them. Instructables has instructions on how to build a filament extruder, and YouTube has several video tutorials on the same. Erika and I need to figure out if this is right for us if we are unable to find a recycling center that will take our plastics. Again, should we take on this project, I’ll be sure to keep you posted as to our progress and experience.
Final Thoughts and Follow-Up
Erika and I feel so very fortunate to have stepped into the 3D printing industry as it gives us a chance to bring our designs to life. We often muse that all of the varied talents we’ve developed over the years (graphic design, animation, project management, model-building, research) have led us to this moment: we were meant to work in the 3D printing realm. For the first time in our careers, we’re doing our own thing. We just want to do it responsibly. We pledge to continuously look for opportunities to reduce our waste, and to find a way to recycle what we can’t avoid wasting. As I learn more and tackle this problem, I promise to share what I learn, as I expect some of you found this blog because you want to get into 3D printing.