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Is there anyone who is (trying to) recycle plastics from 3D print leftovers, failures, trials, …

in the wide area of Antwerp (city) ?

3D Printing is generating a lot of waste (material and spools), and I would like to look at recycling that in some way.

If there is anyone with a filament extruder (commercial or DIY), I would be happy to work together to recycle.

Maybe we could set something up with the Antwerp Hubs?

Anyone interested?

Olivier

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We looked into starting something like this but the only issue was that melting down the plastic again wouldn’t get the same properties. We found that when it was melted down the second time it didn’t print as well and had moisture in it from the first spool it was on. Let us know if you find something different.

Thanks.

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Hi,

so just to clarify, I’m not an expert, just trying to contribute in deceasing the pile of waste from 3D printing.

but :

- in case of ABS, I’ve heard about mixing 50/50 (recycled with new) would improve maintaining the properties of the materials.

- I thought if you stayed withing the melting bracket of a material (min/max temp) it should retain most of its properties

- but there is indeed a limit of recycling rounds (a 2nd recycling round will drastically increase the risk of brittle material)

- although some equipment seems to be able to handle the moisture issue (like Filabot?)

I also was thinking of recycling PET bottles for filament

If recycling is not suited for creating filament, maybe use it to create the spools for new filament?

Or grind/shred the material, and re-use it for something else… like … furniture

Just thinking… because imagine the pile of otherwise useless waste from for example the 100 busiest hubs here …

He has a really nice project, but sadly, I’m not really a machine builder, nor do I have the tools/space to do it

http://www.davehakkens.nl/

that is the other reason I was looking to cooperate locally

Olivier

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