Hi Muckychris,
If you don’t mind me asking, how much do you sell them for? Thanks!
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At $2.99 they hang around for a while - slow sell.
At $1.99 they move quicker.
Have a great day.
If there were a supplier that offered $2 return off next purchase I’d happily use it.
(I have 9 machines running 24/7 and go thru a lot of filament)
Good solution would be to use them again for the reason they where created I think. This means no resources are needed. Many people forget that recycling is a process that needs resources. What would you think if you new that your spools are being recycled using electricity power produced by coals?
Return programs set up by the producers of filament would also be a good solution.
I am building my own filament extruder and keep my spools to make new ones with the 10kg pellets I have here.
of course if filament extruders would be available to anyone, then even shipping back empty spools would not be needed anymore as everybody could reuse their own empty spools!
“Return programs set up by the producers of filament would also be a good solution” - see my reply a little bit below…
Exactly! see below, I think one or two hubs in every city should take the initiative and buy/build a decent filament extruder and produce for locals. Personally, I don’t believe a DIY extruder can output a good tolerance for the commercial prospect. I mean if I’m going to provide fresh filament to local users (with spool return policy), I’m responsible for quality and safety (equipement or some components needs homologation)… There are some pretty precise Twin Screw Extruders out there (mainly in China) ready to ship for around 4K$. One thing I can DIY is a shredder to recycle failed parts and supports (on return policy) and other plastics from the recycling bin like PLA milk and juice bottles, etc. But then again, why bother reinventing the wheel when there are some pretty heavy duty shredders out there on Alibaba for example. So if you read below, Im asking local Hubs to co-fund some serious equipement if they want co-ownership and the advantages from that, being high quality filament basically for free and revenues from sales. Having local production and a spool return program and plastics recycling program would drastically reduce the price of filament for local users and 3D printing will emancipate. I want to be among the pioneers. Cheers!
Hey BDan, good thinking… get in touch with me, I am interested, maybe we can look at this idea a little more closer.
Scott
In terms of return programs and not “what you did with?”, I think it should be the way the industry should go. There are many reasons for that including the following:
- filament spools are different depending on brands (colorFabb ones are clear transparent plastic for example)
- it would be stupid to destruct an object that would need to be recreated
- it is the way all brands are going. See Nespresso for example.
This discussion is getting very interesting to me but, TBH, I’m having trouble keeping track of people’s inputs though. Perhaps the way I’m viewing the page or maybe just the format. BUT!! I think we have something here. Not p*** in anyone’s fire here. Just want to structure thoughts a bit…
1) There’s no sense recycling spools because they’re useful and it would use still more energy to do so
2) There are many different spool formats and sizes
3) If, for every geographical “set” of printers, there were a “centralised” shredding, extruding, spooling facility, we’d be able to get recycled material with many financial and environmental advantages.
4) Such a facility would be scalable, according to local print demand and number of printers.
5) Diversity of spool designs need not be a big issue as facility spool stock would probably reflect usage of the local printers to a large extent.
I’m sure I’ve missed something. Anybody got anything to add?
This is really interesting!!!
Cheers!
AndyL
Pot8oSh3D
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