this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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Holy crap, that's a lot of work to get a roll of filament. That's only economical if your time is worth nothing. Ugh.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 years ago (3 children)

tbf, you wouldn't do this because it's cheaper, you'd do it because it's more ecologically friendly and it helps make your 3d printer a bit more sustainable.

But at 20 bucks for a spool of thread, you won't be coming out ahead economically by recycling, I agree.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It’d be fun to mess around with if it wasn’t 12-18k for the setup.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Yikes. That's a loooooootta filament.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

It's also not more ecologically friendly -- you've gotta use near 80% virgin material with 20% regrind for a good quality product. All you're doing is bringing its production into your house on a smaller, more inefficient scale. And then you're paying this dipshit here $20k so you can save $5 on your 1kg of PLA.

To be fair, however, it is good if you're testing small batches of filament formulations because you're running an actual production line though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

The video uses 50/50, not 80/20

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

ngl, I've never tried it and I doubt I'm about to start, so prints go into the recycle bin so they can get dumped in the landfill with the rest of the recycling.

But at the very least, it's a better practice to use PLA as your main choice.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago

Strangely enough, ABS is better for the environment, as it's one of the few actual materials that get recycled...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

No, the ecologically friendly option is to send it to the recycling.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Assuming it's recycled instead of sent to a landfill.

Once you find out about how the business of recycling works that's often not such a certain assumption.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

In Germany there is a company that specifically lets you send in oly pla and pet and the sells it. You even get a credit based on how sortet your used Filament is. https://recyclingfabrik.com/

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

3D printing waste is a clean waste. It doesn't have food leftovers on it, weird paint or anything else which will render it unrecyclable. Also PLA just goes into a composter.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Great argument. Bit of a problem though: you don't need to convince me or the fediverse. You need to convince plastic recyclers not to just take the strange plastic like thing that isn't labeled and isn't common and just send it to the landfill.

The journey of recycling doesn't end the moment that a potentially recyclable object ends up in your recycle bin. In order to be recycled, A bunch of things need to go right, and if they don't then your "recycling" just enters the local landfill, if you're lucky. If you're unlucky, your "recycling" will end up in a cargo container on its way to a landfill in some third world country somewhere.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/17/recycled-plastic-america-global-crisis

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Mate, there are specialist recyclers for 3D printing waste - https://3dprintingwaste.co.uk/

They don't dump into the landfill.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You're naive if you think that "recycling" hasn't been a complete smokescreen for decades, FFS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Not all recycling is the same.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

"That’s only economical if your time is worth nothing." Well, we should all be able to live lives where we can pursue things that do not have monetary rewards. Obviously not everyone is in that position but perhaps for David Florian exploring and learning and trying things is what makes him happy. Of course for him it probably makes money as well, even if indirectly. The fact that his video got shared means more people will see it, and more views means more money, so there's the value for David Florian. It's also worth considering that in science, it's all about trying things and gathering information that will hopefully lead to new (and hopefully lower cost) capabilities.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

To be fair, most hobby 3d printing is only economical if your time is worth nothing

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

True, in some sense. However, I can't get a lot of the things that I can 3d print. There's literally no way to buy them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

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https://piped.video/jXY1EygE4R8?si=4oTDUlOl2paDZSPV

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

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