{"id":609,"date":"2014-04-21T15:43:51","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T15:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zprod.org\/zwp\/?p=609"},"modified":"2015-02-23T09:58:14","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T09:58:14","slug":"recycling-plastic-for-3d-printing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zprod.org\/zwp\/research\/recycling-plastic-for-3d-printing\/","title":{"rendered":"Recycling plastic for 3D printing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"absShredsBanner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have been using basic 3d printers since 2011, starting with a Thing-o-matic<\/a>\u00a0 by Makerbot, then a couple of UP3D machines. They use plastic filament, mostly made of Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), <\/a>the same material used to make Lego bricks, or polylactic acid (PLA)<\/a>, a plastic derived from corn starch or other renewable bio-materials. The filament is generally made from virgin plastic (ie: not recycled), purchased ready-spooled and in various colours.<\/p>\n

The frequent use of a 3D printer has a common side-effect: the production of a significant amount of faulty parts and temporary support structures, without even counting in the endless tat spewed out by the little machines in the guise of Yoda heads, clumsy plastic jewellery, door knobs that don’t quite work…<\/p>\n\n\t\t