Recycled Filaments
Recycled Filaments
Why you should consider recycled filaments, and how to recycle 3D printed Waste
Plastics are a part of our everyday life, whilst also contributing to the daily deaths of marine life. As the world is increasingly being filled with new plastic products, landfills are becoming overcrowded. This is causing an estimated 100,000 mammals to die each year, from consuming or being entangled in plastic. As 3D printing becomes more popular, the production and consumption of plastic will increase, therefore making this situation even worse.
As a result, it becomes more crucial to recycle wherever possible and to use recycled products when able to. 3D printing can turn trash into treasure – regardless if you are printing decorative art pieces or functional parts, creating value from waste is both healthy for the environment and a noble goal. If you are interested in recycled filaments you can see our full range here.
Filaprint rePLAy is practically identical to standard PLA, while being made up of more than 97% recycled material. The only difference being a slight variation in colour – rePLAy is slightly saturated and more muted which can be preferable if you find regular PLA is too bright in colour.
Francofil offer a series of compostable, biodegradable PLA filaments, with a unique twist; they are made from waste streams of wheat, coffee, beer, scallops, mussels and oysters. We produced a short YouTube video giving a brief overview of our experience using Francofil’s Beer filament.
If you are looking for something more durable than PLA, we offer a range of colours in PIPG, a Pet-G material made from 100% recycled material. Reflow have produced a range of recycled translucent PETG filaments named Seaglass, various colours of recycled Pet-G with great layer adhesion and low warping making it simple to pick up and print with.
In addition to recycled filaments, there are environmentally friendly spools on offer such as PolyTerra PLA. Polymaker plant a tree for every spool purchased, offsetting its own carbon footprint and giving back to the earth. PolyTerra prides itself on being easy to print, which by itself can reduce energy costs and waste by reducing the chance of a failed print. The spool and box it is kept in are both made from recycled cardboard, and the filament itself can biodegrade into compost if kept in the right conditions.
3D printing can produce waste – prints can fail, supports may need to be utilised, brims and rafts need to be constructed and removed. This waste can be recycled! At 3D Filaprint, we offer a waste drop off service. Simply send over any PLA waste to us and we will handle the recycling. You will receive a 5% discount code on your next purchase from 3D FilaPrint. You can even recycle these products yourself and turn them into new filament at home; both 3Devo and Protocycler allow you to grind down printing waste and extrude it into filament, which is then wound onto a spool.
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