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Would people be more inclined to buy filament made from recycled plastic (rPLA, rABS) if it was the same price as conventional PLA/ABS?

If Yes/No how come? I would be interested to hear you views and gain some insight as to why it’s not more commonplace.

Thanks

Cameron

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I wouldn’t …I actually work in the recycling industry although we don’t specialise in plastic we do some… sorting plastic is not easy there are over 200 grades/types and it’s almost always contaminated with some other plastic and we can never shift plastic that’s been recycled already… apparently it doesn’t recycle very well once it’s already been recycled. Why would you recycle pla it’s made plant based and naturally decomposes. ABS I usually buy the stuff that’s marked as “made from virgin ABS”

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Thanks for your response! I was curious as I have seen that other companies have emerged in recent years with the aim to allow users to create their own filament, sell their filament they have made from recycled mediums or both. Such companies include Omnidynamics, ReDeTec, Re-filament and Fila-cycle (although the latter are yet to have their products on the market). Another new product with the aim of pushing sustainability forward in this way is the Ekocycle, a collaboration between Coca-Cola and Will.I.Am, which may bring this sustainable twist to 3D printing to the public eye.

Do you think there is a desirability for the end-user to use these materials and/or devices for prototyping? If these operations were carried out on smaller scales say by individuals or small 3D printer companies (like MakLab in the UK) using their own plastic waste/ recycling their own wasted parts to be recycled, do you think it would be desirable/justified?

I would be interested to hear what your thoughts on these were. Thanks!

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I would say yes if the manufacturer can demonstrate consistent printing quality

But to start with, I just don’t understand why so few filament manufacturers use cardboard rolls. To my knowledge, only proto plasta does.

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Recycling unused/defective printed parts is a different story as it will be fairly uncontaminated and it would make sense to reuse that plastic… if there was some sort of place where you could take your unwanted prints to be recycled that would probably be a good thing as you know we all have a box of *prints that failed"… but this would only work in large cities I would imagine