From Trash to Treasure: Recycle Cutlery into 3D Filament!
Brilliant is the best way to learn math & science topics! Go to brilliant.org/CNCKitchen for a 30-day free trial & the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual subscription.
Single-use Plastic Cutlery is not only horrible to use but also produces a lot of waste. I tried recycling it to 3D printing filament and documented my journey. Let's find out more!
Check out our CNC Kitchen products at cnckitchen.store/ or at our global resellers www.cnckitchen.com/reseller
Artme3D DIY filament maker: www.artme-3d.de/
3DEVO Shredder: geni.us/3DEVO-FilamentMaker
Prusa Mk4 (Affiliate): geni.us/PrusaMK4
Bambu Lab A1 (Affiliate): geni.us/BambulabA1
Website article www.cnckitchen.com/blog/recyc...
💚 Support me 💚
Patreon: / cnckitchen
Join as a KZhead member!
Buy an Original Prusa i3 printer: geni.us/CNCKPrusa
PayPal: www.paypal.me/CNCKitchen
Shop at Matterhackers(US): www.matterhackers.com/?aff=7479
Shop at 3DJake(EU): geni.us/zHvnB
JLCPCB 3D Prints starting at only $1: geni.us/JLC3DPrinting
🎙Check out my Podcast with Thomas Sanladerer: / @themeltzone
📚 Printed Models:
Multi Color Catan Game: www.thingiverse.com/thing:252...
3D Benchy: www.printables.com/model/3161...
Mini Stefan: www.printables.com/model/8688...
⚙ My gear:
🎥 CAMERAS & LENSES
Panasonic GH5 - Professional 4k60 camera: geni.us/LMN0CmS
Panasonic GX80/GX85 - Great value system camera: geni.us/M2Sm
30mm f2.8 macro - Great Macro Lens (80% of my videos): geni.us/vEwqD
10-25mm f1.7 - Awesome Lens: geni.us/ZTBH
12-35mm f2.6 - Great Allround Lens: geni.us/S9GOsr
14-140mm f3.5-5.6 - My go-to travel Lens: geni.us/fSAyKo
25mm f1.4 - Nice prime for photography: geni.us/mqWM
🎙AUDIO
Rode Video Mic Pro - Shotgun mic: geni.us/6JFRdJ
Rode Film Maker Kit - Wireless mic: geni.us/XMD2N
Rode NT-USB - Studio Mic: geni.us/YVONvy
🔴 LIVE STREAMING
Elgatoo Stream Deck: geni.us/ppIiAL
Elgatoo HDMI USB Capture Card: geni.us/imhD
Logitech C920 - Overhead camera: geni.us/ViVgB
Follow me on Twitter: / cnc_kitchen
Follow me on Instagram: / cnckitchenyt
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:59 Setup
03:21 Batch 1: 100% Shredded Material
06:42 Batch 2: 50/50 Mix
07:52 Sponsor
09:22 Batch 3: Different Material
11:02 Batch 4: The Perfect One
14:32 Summary
#3Dprinting #Recycling #PlasticWaste
DISCLAIMER: Part of this video was sponsored by Brilliant.
FTC Disclaimer: A percentage of sales is made through Affiliate links
🎅Brilliant is the best way to learn math & science topics! Go to brilliant.org/CNCKitchen for a 30-day free trial & the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual subscription.
Stefan, PLA is compostable (in very special conditions) but not biodegradable, definitely. To compost, PLA requires temperatures over 65°C + high pressure + high concentration of specific enzymes, otherwise, it only degrades possibly into micro plastics, like others thermoplastics. And there's no way you can find these three conditions into nature or into a garden waste ground compostage. You need an industrial or laboratory environment which both involve heavy machinery and energy. And last 2023 studies leads to the same conclusions, alas. By the way, there's currently no sorting facilities for PLA which is, like most of plastics currently incinerated with other materials. Please document yourself on the topic and beware about hoax which are by numbers on the net. I would like the community be more aware of that. There's currently no printing material with no impact on the environment, alas.
is 0:48 a shot of i70 in Colorado?
@@axelSixtySix i could not have said it better!
Hey, i have noticed that when you shred the plastic, a lot of it sticks to the machine due to static buildup. Coincidentally this problem also exists when crushing coffee beans so people spray the beans with water to reduce the static buildup and thus the clinging to the walls of the machine. You might give it a try since you already gotta dry the filament afterwards :)
A little hint. When producing PLA filament, an elastomer such as EVA (for example, TPUs such as Ninjaflex should also work) is often used to make it less brittle. 5% is enough.
Thanks for being one of the few channels that actually talk about recycling or the pla issues in general! Even though this still seems too difficult/expensive for most, it's vital to shine a light on it.
yeah, because we need lot of this deranged cultist thinking. same pattern - create imaginary problem, try to solve it at great costs and waste and then expect praise. Grow up and get real
Agreed. I would really love a place nearby where I could drop my unused prints and waste knowing that they would create new filament from it.
@@_renze_ - Do you think it would be viable to ship your plastic to be recycled into filament? I was running through the logistics of it all, as I could likely set up a super small operation and use the proceeds of reselling (super cheap) recycled filament to scale.. but I'm simply not sure how viable it is to ask folks to ship it out or whether I could even keep up if I got more than expected at first.
In the US, you can just put box in your local grocery store and ppl will collect things for you. I'm getting one full box of HDPE plastic caps in 2 months. Shipping is cheap in the US, it'll work. In the EU shipping is super expensive.
It's got to happen at some point. Governments dont have a plan ever. Someone has to do it
It would be interesting to see you do some iterative strength tests by starting with virgin plastic and then extruding, testing and then grinding it to extrude it again and see the trends in the strength metrics as the number of melt cycles increases. This could potentially help determine by comparision how much virgin plastic needs to be added to recyled material to reach certain strength thresholds.
Totally agree!
I've seen some studies on this done. the problem is that it's not the grinding and re-extruding that is the primary cause of weakened plastic, but things like prolonged uv exposure and abrasion. I know that injection molded plastic can be ground and re-injected dozens of times without a noticeable strength decrease, but virgin plastic that sat outside for a year will be noticeably weaker when ground and re-used, as the polymer itself is what has degraded.
I'd also like to see how the name brand cutlery filament does in the usual testing gauntlet with and without food exposure with 100% recycled material. maybe throw in some poorly washed stuff if you think the recycling setup isn't going to be damaged by it.
Brothers Make did a video on how many times plastic can be recycled i think it was interesting 😊
I would hope you wouldn't fuck any of the plastic but hey you do you
I would love to see you turn more complicated old-prints into new filament such as polycarbonate, tpu, and petg. I love this "series" because it truly shows just how much 3D Printing can impact the world not only through building, but through recycling as well.
Congrats, you won some of the filament I made! Please send me a quick message at contact@cnckitchen.com
What about plasic containers from take out food? It feels like a logical next step! As always, good job Stephan!
If it's #6 plastic it can be used just like Shrinky-Dinks! (The other ones, not so much)
On my school project in Germany btw that's what I used. And you won't need an industrial shredder. You can slice lids with scissors and use the blender to make it to a smaller fraction. With a shredder it's faster though.
If you use the used plastic cutlery you might even create some exciting new variants of scented filament.
Dog breath benchy.
Interesting😃
Nah fam
danm thats a good comment
Using hdpe from shampoo and cleaning agent bottles makes for some amazing smelling materials. Hdpe is basically a sponge for odors
This isn't just a US problem. Asian countries have the most plastic waste in the world. This is a huge opportunity for reuse worldwide!
China and India account for 80% of the great pacific garbage patch. But you won’t hear that covered on CNN or MSNBC
You get better engagement when you say it's a US problem.
Not really, you can´t collect all that stuff easily. It costs more to sort, clean etc than just create virgin material. We have the same problem in the automotive industry which we ciurrently work on, but the material is just not a good as virgin material and costs even more money.
@sierraecho884 it even extends beyond recycling. Almost all renewable / clean things we need will be more resource or effort intensive than the old pulluting things they replace. But we still put in the effort!
@@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse This is factually wrong. Recycled Aluminium is waaaay cheaper and easier produces, same goes for any other metal. It´s also easier to collect, sort, etc. Solar an Wind can be very cost efficient as well. I don´t want to be mean but you have simply no idea what you are talking about. Sounds like you talk from a more political correctness point of view.
I work in injection molding hopefully I can help with some mixing percentages. For most of our materials we have anywhere from 4%-6% for color hopefully this will help with color consistency. As far as regrind (recycled plastics) go, we change % based on how much scrap we have. Recycled plastic has generally already gone through a heat cycle and the polymer chains do break down causing a less viscous melt. This could be why your diameter for your recycled filament wants to stay undersized but when virgin material is added the diameter increases. If you want to do a 15%-20% Virgin added to regrind, then maybe stepping up a nozzle size on the filament extruder and running a slightly hotter melt. This hopefully will help with filament diameter and a more homogeneous and consistent melt and color. As always do what you do best and experiment for the best results. I just hope this helps put you in the right direction.
I love that you've really taken this on! I think the biggest blocker for slightly wider adoption is the cost of the shredder still. It'd be cool if there was a cheaper option that performed well, or perhaps you could look into designing one?
I just separate and save my scraps and send them to my local recycler and get back nice new rolls. It’s always exactly 1.75 and comes with an engineering and material property report. Since they have a system and infrastructure it is basically the same price as getting rolls of cheap filament, but much higher quality, as I give them good plastics. If I was to make this myself, just for my labour, not any equipment, each roll will cost me $300 instead of the less than $30 that I pay for a professionally recycled one. If it’s a hobby and you have time, it’s great. But I have already spent weeks of my life, trying to make good filament. It’s not for me personally. I learned all that I wanted to learn and sold the equipment.
@@lemonsquareFPV Really wish there were more recyclers around. Completely agree with you that an exchange program is a better use of everyone's time.
The shredder and extruder are both individually more expensive than the cost of filament spools for most hobbyists (I have barely spent more than $100 on filament in my 3 years of owning a printer), and professional users might not see any cost savings after quality control and recycle costs are factored in.
@@dsp4392couldn't agree more! Recycling centers could be turning all kinds of plastics into filament
It would likely never be economic for a single hobbyist, but a local makerspace might be able to pay it back by selling their recycled filament
Been really enjoying all the recycling videos! Keep them coming. I think it would be good to mention that most plastic cutlery is made from PP and PS and not PLA. On a related note, PureCycle is a PP recycling company that finished their first large-scale plant in Ohio earlier this year.
Id love to see you shred and 3d print whats in your recycling bin! Im loving these videos and hope this turns into a series because it gets me excited to see what absolutely amazing things 3d printing could do for us
You are knocking these home recycling and filament making videos out of the park! Can't wait to see where you go to next with this. ❤
Just do a whole series where you work your way through all the most common short life or easily broken household items. Plastic plates, cups, soap bottles, shampoo/conditioner bottles, combs, tooth brushes, ziploc bags, etc.
Not long ago this kind of at home recycling seemed impossible and expensive. This is really pushing the curve and i find it incredibly impressive. Hopefully this will become something anyone can add to their hobby.
Not gonna lie my main issue with this is the shredder. It would be interesting to see a good way to shred the plastic for cheap
I would think a coffee grinder might do it. The low speed type with ceramic disks that baristas use, not the blender models.
I don´t make new filament but i recycle plastic with other methods and a classic mixer is the best cheap option @@sail4life
@@sail4life I think the hardest part of trying to use a burr grinder is getting the plastic through it. Coffee beans tend to get kicked up as it is so getting the plastic to go through the grinder on its own would be, I assume, a challenge. Then again, they make hand-driven and non-electric burr grinders. I guess you could figure out a way to attach one of those to a surface and then turn the crank with one hand while feeding the plastic in with the other hand? I really wish in-home recycling from start to spool was as inexpensive and available as 3D printers are though.
You did the plastic silverware. Now try the plastic food containers, trays, cups, etc. Love watching your channel, always interesting new things to see and learn!
I like the random horizontal banding and even more banding effect would be a very nice option. The evenness of the blending of the red Masterbatch was very impressive from such discrete pieces.
These recycling videos of yours have to be my favorite ones! Awesome experiment and idea! I’d like to see some testing on recycled ABS material from old car parts and maybe yard equipment? Maybe old electronics too? This could be a big source of material!
Shred a ton of old CDs oder DVDs. Leave the metallic particles inside
Good one! Glittery Polycarbonat Filament
Too bad 3D Printing and recycling wasn't big when recordable CDs and DVDs were in their heyday; the coasters would have been great for this purpose.
I wonder if the organic dye layer in record able cds would effect the polycarbonate base material... Can that filament maker that you used get hot enough for polycarbonate?
@@Sembazuru guess the stuff get burned away and mostly carbon stays.
@@Sembazuru It uses PTFE tape on the nozzle so no, not without modification. I've also read that pure polycarbonate is very hard to print; the filament you can buy generally has additives to make it easier.
I absolutely love your channel! I've learned soooooo much from you. I started #3Dprinting back in 2021 on a Ender 3 pro, your channel was my first 3D Print channel sub. Anyway, I'd love to see you recycle TPU (if possible) with different color changes, and different hardness levels. Thank you for such amazing info, all your hard work, and high quality (visually pleasing) videos. Keep up the amazing work Stefan!
Excellent video as always. Your attention to detail is impeccable.
You should try recycling the Prusament spool material, that way you can combat the waste that comes from sending the extra spool plastic with every roll of filament!
Thank you for another very interesting video Stefan! I'd love to see PET bottles recycled with your setup.
Not going to work. Shredding will take him for a loop)))
Stefan has always been one for progress and environmentalism. Thank you for all you do. Good, important work, and highly entertaining.
Love this series on recycling this stuff, keep it up!
I’m totally interested in this extruder! I can see so many opportunities to create usable filament from recycled post-consumer waste plastic. 😊
This looks awesome for the use with single use plastics! Though, CPLA is quite uncommon for anything else, isn't it? Could you give Polypropylene (PP) a try, too? Many packaging materials are made from it and it has some really interesting properties.
Heads-up, polypropylene and any other polyolefin is far from a beginner friendly filament.
I love videos where I yell at the screen "do this and that" and then 2-3 seconds later the person explains my very good idea and I feel smart :D Still very much enjoy all your videos, thank you for all the energy you put in. Frohe Feiertage und einen guten Rutsch!
Great work! I can't wait to start recycling my own filament.
I think this is a very promising idea. I hope to one day get a filament machine like the one you have. It seems awesome.
It's not expensive 600 euro, made in Germany.
I think I remember you mentioning HDPE a while back, but I would love to see if you can recycle that, or perhaps go into ways to blend or even treat prints of various types to have increased UV resistance. It'd be an awesome help to the community, in my opinion, especially to those who want to print products specifically for the medical field, since we use UV to sterilize a lot of our equipment. Love the channel, love what you do, and the way you succinctly present information is incredibly refreshing!
Using recycled plastics for medical purposes is a horrible idea.
@@DaveSmith-cp5kj Out of curiosity, why? I would think recycled plastics would be fine for anything that is already made from the same plastic but I really don't know much when it comes to medical.
@@JoshDavis40 It's the sterilization issue. If you want something reusable it has survive being autoclaved which pretty much none of what is commonly used is capable of without warping due to glass transition. Compounding this is the fact 3D printing introduces an insanely high surface area for contaminants to be trapped, which increases the risk of contamination. Contamination is not very likely, but in medicine unlike say dentistry you have no idea how sensitive a patient will be to pathogens. If you watch healthcare workers if anything is suspect, they throw it out (even if they drop some gauze on the floor still in it's plastic wrapper) because infection control can mean life or death. An autoclave also only sterilizes biological threats. You could have something like a recycled material having an allergen or something that would go unnoticed. This could be as equally as dangerous no matter how small. For first responder applications however, infection control is not as big of a deal because the act of treating a victim in an austere environment automatically introduces pathogens. Your objective here isn't infection control, but ABC stuff (Airway, Breathing, Circulation), or MARCH if you are in military. Ukrainians on the separatist side early in the civil war before they started getting supplies from Russia did things like make tourniquets, NPA, and even decompression needles from trash which saved lives. However many had complications from the obvious lack of infection control.
@@DaveSmith-cp5kjand you are very right)
I absolutely love your recycling videos and hope to see you find more affordable ways for us to do this ourselves!
Fascinating concept. Thanks for sharing.
In Sweden (and most likely the rest of the world) we use polypropylene for ice cream containers etc. It would be really interesting to see how those recycles. I might even buy me an artme extruder if it goes well
It is amazing to recycle cutlery but I don't know how you but I use plastic cups more than plastic cutlery. You could take colored plastic cups and have it colored filament without adding any colours.
Honestly, I'm a random guy who is interested in 3d printing since I have started watching your videos. You're doing really good job bro 😊. Keep it up. We long for new videos ❤
Love the red. Perfect for the holidays! 🎁
I would absolutely love to see a company take this idea and insert it on a large scale! Great job
'Recycling Fabrik' in Braunschweig, Germany. Amazing guys. The only ppl in the industry who really helped me with my falling out recycling project in German school plus Naomi Wu (she is AMAZING). I wish Stefan would highlight them too.
Old coffee machines that grind coffee beans sometimes have grinders that no longer produce a fine enough ground coffee for the machine to work properly but might be able to grind filament plastic into pieces possibly smaller than the raw pellets. I wonder if it would be possible to thoroughly mix a finely ground mix of filament to achieve a more uniform color.
Valentine's recycled filament! Since you love the environment. 🥰 The finish is very impressive too. I didn't even realize that compostable silverware was made of PLA!
Happy Christmas, Stefan! 🎄
Happy holidays!
Love the recycling videos! maybe try HDPE and ldpe bottles next time, I heard they are hard to 3d print with
The red filament looks like it’d be perfect for some mesa terrain pieces. As for suggestions, I’m somewhat curious what effect mixing different materials has. I haven’t made much effort to sort my printing leftovers between PLA and PETG since I don’t have a recycler, but supposing I did have one would the mixed materials work at all or just make a useless spool?
You'd probably end up with a useless spool, unless you managed to sort them. PLA has a low melting temperature, so you could sort the PLA from the other material by putting it in an oven at just high enough temperature to make it soft, and then squish the prints to test the material.
PLA and PETG absolutely do not like each other, they form virtually no molecular bond, so you would be relying purely on mechanical interlocking. PLA and ABS do work together quite well though, so I imagine PC might work too since PC and ABS work together. PETG happily bonds to TPU and Nylon to a lesser degree, so some impurities there shouldn't harm the result too much. Definitely a nice topic for more research!
I used to work in a medical production facility where we made medical tubing on a plastic extruder. There the diameter was very critical. We had a laser micrometer continuously measure the extruded diameter and via a feedback loop we adjusted for the correct diameter. The tubing was cooled in a waterbath so it wouldn't change diameter anymore before winding on a spool. Correction was done by pulling out the material faster or slower until the specification diameter was reached. This was done continuously throughout the production proces. I would suspect that if you can create a very stable fillament diameter the 3D printed product would benefit greatly and have fewer defects and artifacts. Just my 2 cents. Great Vid!
I think the next step to this process should be re pelletizing the filament and make it into final filament. Pelet flow through the machine much more consistent and it might help with color consistency.
build another extruder and feed the output of the first into the second
Really liked this video! I would like to see a test where you printed a multicolor print only with your recycled material, and then tried to recycle the poop from that. And maybe, repeat that as many times as possible!
The filament recycling videos are pretty interesting and fun!
I'd love to see more DIY methods for recycling pretty much any of the commonly recycled plastics (PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, polypropylene, polystyrene), albeit into homemade 3D printer filament or even injection molded parts (using 3D printed molds)
Investigating the use of high-force extruders for injection molding with common plastics would also be quite interesting
Pet would for sure work, not sure about the others
PET won't work. The melting temperature is 245C, not 165C. You would need more expensive extruder for PET.
Please DONT make a video about plastic bottle recycling since a lot of EU countries have a deposit system. I would love to see a video about filament made from many variuos plastic mix such as PLA, ABS, PETG etc. and how it prints.
I truly enjoy this channel and learn new things for use in my printer. I’m trying to use plastic bottles by making a filament maker with it. Fingers crossed
This is amazing, & everything I've ever wanted
Think a better way to put it. How the 3D printing industry has contributed to the plastic waste problem. The industry you cherish, has contributed a ton to waste, from plastics to short EOL machines. Instead you poke at the US. While other countries are unregulated and dump toxins to manufacture products that people use daily! I find it odd that the US seems to be the boogeyman, yet these creators make a living off of US based companies.
Germans just love hating on the us
a couple of counterpoints 1. there is a tone of reuse/repurposing of machines in the 3d printer industry. 2. the actual amount of waste generated by it is tiny compared to the unnecessary use of single use plastics.
@@legokill1019 - People living in their plastic bubble. Most machines are not reused they are eventually scrapped or possibly thrown away. People always seem to miss words and read other things. I said “contributed to the plastic waste problem”, no matter how small it is still an issue. It is people like you that gloss over it as a non issue. Then dodge the second part of my comment. Seems to me other countries have more of this elitist attitude, thinking their country has no faults and the US is an easy target. If it wasn’t for the US, CNC Kitchen would have to find a different source of revenue.
@@Firstleaker What's your source to say that 3D printers are scrapped and thrown away, have you personally thrown away a 3D printer or seen one thrown away? People sell their garbage 3D printers on and they fetch pretty adequate money ($50-$100 for a typical Ender-esque one) because there's any number of enthusiasts who'll happily reuse the motion system bits and the motors and the frame and rebuild the machine, either repairing the electronics and doing new firmware, or replacing or augmenting the electronics, also reusing the PSU. There also... just isn't that many of these machines around. Sure 3D printers are quite shitty and unreliable but thanks to RepRap they're very rebuildable and reusable. If i find one thrown away, i'm absolutely rescuing it. The second thing is the byproducts of 3D printing itself, such as support and attachment material (non-use parts of the output), failed prints, and failed designs from the iteration process, as well as 3D printed items that have outlived their usefulness or got worn or degraded. This is actually something Stefan has addressed multiple times with his own recycling attempts and has pushed for improvement. There are companies popping up here to which you can mail your sorted print material for recycling and get credit towards recycled filament that they sell. This is still certainly a problem, since i have thrown away plastic at times and have seen others do that as well. I try to collect most of it for eventual recycling. It is also certainly a question of scale, since there just isn't enough critical mass to do better about it. I think 3D printing crowd is actually substantially more cognisant about plastic waste problem than the general population, and would actually be quite receptive about recycling offers if they were more available. Seems to me you're just trolling, as you admit it's a problem that is in general fairly small in scale compared to most single-use plastic problems. Also 3D printing is a creative endeavour. I am yet to see creative endeavours which weren't anyhow wasteful. Maybe you're just "wasting" electricity to do something that is screen bound only, but that's still coal and oil that get consumed. And yet creativity is valuable, because it's the foundation of society, culture and tech progress. Plastic cutlery or single-use plastic packaging are not valuable in the same way, no harm would come to society from replacing them with permanent, reused items.
@@SianaGearz - I can alway appreciate the long effort someone can put into a reply. Once again people tend to read what they want. “Scrap”. What is the definition of “scrap” Metal waste or scrap metal is any product that's broken or no longer useable, which is made completely or mostly from a metal material. For example, it could be broken tools, metal sheets from manufacturing, a bent pipe, old electrical appliances. Doesn’t mean it is thrown out. See people like you, the enthusiasts, are not typical consumers. Typical consumers live what is called a “throw away society”. Do you know when a “throw away society happened? It is the term “planned obsolescence” came into play. See, planned obsolescence started with the lightbulb. The standard lightbulb was lasting so long that manufacturers stopped making money. So all the manufacturers made an agreement that a lightbulb would have a max lifespan. Any manufacturer caught making bulbs passed a certain lifespan would get majorly fined. People buy the latest and greatest, a year later a better machine comes out, they buy that. That old tired machine sits on a garage floor getting tossed in every corner. Then 2 years later it cannot even be sold on Facebook Marketplace. Then that poor machine is sent to “scrap” or thrown out. Once again I said ”contribute”. Just amazing how people cannot read and blow things out of proportion! Not everyone lives in this space, and goes by the “3D community” guidelines. People are consumers, if they get a print failure, it will go into the trash. That’s because they are told some of the filament they use isn’t recyclable. Seems that everyone in this space lives in their plastic bubble! Literally! You think everyone thinks like you, and should think like you. The first words was calling out a country for something not everyone does. To me that is very word of elitism. I can go down countless streets for recycling and waste pickup, there is usually more recycling than waste. I don’t pass judgement on other countries, especially if I am earning most of my revenue form that country as a creator. If I was trolling I would be doing a much better job!
Fascinating results. I don't think I'm the only commenter who wants to see the usual testing gauntlet done for these recycled PLA materials with and without food exposure, so we can quantify how food residue affects strength or impact resistance. Maybe even a batch of less carefully cleaned utensils if you think it won't cause damage to the recycling setup. You could even investigate variables of different foods and/or detergents to see what foods are harder to remove or which detergents work better. Obviously all the testing should be done with fully recycled filament so we can get a fair comparison. I can't wait to see what you find out!
This is great! Loving the showcase of the extruder. Really interested to see if this filament extruder can handle PET as it's was more common discarded plastic.
I would like to see a recycle series on items we come across on a day-to-day basis. Then maybe the final video on stuff a little more exotic that may take a bit more time to prep, etc.
Very cool! Would love to see you try recycling the actual spools for the filament.
learning so much from your channel thanks
Love, love this topic. Thank you for continuing to bring it to the forefront. I think a lot of us are waiting for a low-cost, easy-build, consistent solution to grind the plastics and extrude them. Also, you might want to get some moisturizer on those poor hands of yours :)
I really love seeing you recycle new things to make filaments! Do you think you could use zip ties? They're nylon, but I think you can 3D print with nylon filament.
This was a great idea and well executed - to me I think the key here is how to efficiently clean large batches of used cutlery, as washing them in that way is labour intensive and perhaps hard to automate. If you could shred them while dirty and clean them when in a shredded state (although maybe not something you'd like to do with your machines) that'd be a great option for industrial scale recycling.
Just like my comment on the last extruder video; how does it handle ground up PET bottles? What if you first make them a bit smaller by putting them in a convection oven to let them deform? Also would like to see something like PP and HDPE post consumer waste getting shredded. You are a gateway for quite a few people into homemade filament Stefan, and I can’t thank you enough for this
I would like to see filament recycling with composite fibers. Mix in some shredded fibers, shredded some parts which already have fibers and so on.
I think you've sold me on the Art me. After the holidays I'm going to look into getting one!
I work at a supermarket chain in New Zealand and I’m now consulting the deli department on collecting and used cutlery to turn into filament thanks Stephan.
Love to se you try making filament from compost bags. Also love your videos very entertaining.
As for what to recycle next, old LEGOs might be a good candidate, as the tires are TPU, and the bricks are ABS, and loads of them end up broken, discarded, and in landfills every day! I would love to see old bricks melted down and given new life!
Stefan! this is brilliant! As a New Yorker, I can share there's a literal MOUNTAIN of plastic waste generated by take-out, hotels, street vendors and more every day. A lot of this could be feasibly recycled into new products. I'd love to see you experiment with more PLA single-use plastics, there's a very popular clear plastic cup that's been marketed as biodegradable PLA much like our filaments - it would be fascinating to see if the shiny/glossy translucent surface would impart a "silk" texture on the print!
I'd love to see more experiments with this combo, strength testing of different mixes, maybe even different plastics mixed to experiment with the best combos. :)
I'm still making my filament maker. It's gonna be a while. I honestly believe this has a huge future for 3DP and being able to use recycled material. I use recycled ♻️ filament now from a UK supplier so it will be awesome to make my own.
Nice! Next, I would like to see a strength-test with these filament. And next materials: * old cloths like worn out sweaters (made from PET) that are trown out in masses by the 'kringloop'. * old broken plastic chairs and christmas-trees!
Your Sanladerer “But Stefan” impersonation was 👌
I’d love to see your recycle plastic straws next!
That red looks great! I wanna see add some sort of sent to it!
Would love to see an way to recycle PP or PE containers and plastic films in to filament. The ones they usually package meat, fish and various other food products, but i really don't know how one would grind those.
I'd love to see how the more expensive and semi industrial machine from 3devo would perform on the same project. I see you use their shredder for quite some time now and it seems like a very durable and powerful machine!
King's collage London, just released a paper ("An enzyme used in laundry detergent can recycle single-use plastics within 24 hours") on a very fast method that breaks down PLA to monomers within 24 hours, without quality degradation of reproduced PLA. Its a long way from that to commercial recycling, but it shows the possibility of a much more practical way to recycle than the time consuming industrial composting.
I'd love to see you try to recycle filament spools. I think most of them are a blend of ABS and PC, so it should be feasible.
I also have e pile of empty spools laying around. I plan to recycle them, but i don't know how.
As always, excellent video. An idea to achieve the good filament diameter: Shorten the loop to reduce the weight at the output of the extruder.
I'd love to see you do a roll of filament that changes color on purpose using scrap prints and/or bits of pelletized filament from the ends of rolls too short to print anything with. Basically, put in 100g or so of one color (or white with one color pigment), and then put in another amount of another color, and so forth. I'd love to see how the colors transition using your extruder and how well the color transition zones adhere to each other, both on the spool and in the final print.
I would love to see a revisit of a DIY filament grinder to get more consistent results. I would love to make a filament maker to recycle filament at home. It would also be interesting to see you grind down some PET bottles like with the pullstrusion to see if it gives as good of a result
nice one Stefan! i think you might have interesting results if you recycle plastics with a vapour deposit foil layer, like catfood sachets and crisps packaging. you may end up with a slightly metallic filament!
My local restaurants all use plastic containers for take out or to-go boxes would love to see you grind up and reuse those. they are often a mix of clear and black plastic. For a change of fillament result maybe try to add bits of a left over metalic New Years party horn or decorations to give the fillament a sparkle flake?
I think it would be really cool to try making a coffee filament or some kind of strong aromatics. Love your videos!
I would love to see how other variants of plastic could be incorporated to a batch of recycled pellets ie; plastic bags, caps etc!
all-in-one machine, shred, heat, extrude, spool/print etc
You should 3d print a spoon with that same filament, bring bringing it back full circle
I love this recycling videos.
Use chip bags. Packaging for chips and snacks frequently resembles paper or foil. But to shield your crispy nibbles from moisture, the majority of them are covered with a thin coating of plastic.
Hi! I can tell you plenty of the plastic cutlery doesn't get separated for recycling, it ends in the general trash a lot of times. I rarely see people offering it up for recycling at our facilities, probably bc after use, people want to discard it as fast as possible. When people do bring in disposable cutlery it's mostly ancient, unused and often still in it's packaging. Here's hoping most businesses do make the effort to offer them up for recycling, idk.. The highest volumes of plastics we get at our waste recycling facilities are bottles, bags & polystyrene. Not sure if any of that would be easily printed with, bc we have partners with chains that recycle those. We also get a steady flow of water-buckets, trashcans, clothe hangers, cd cases & toys. Those don't (always) meet our partners quality standards (bc of being composited with other materials). Most of those are easy to disassemble.. Perhaps you can intercept a uniform batch from those categories locally? You probably already have a good idea of the types of plastics they're made of and if they're likely useable.
i would love to see a blend of all kinds of plastic scraps, the ultimate DIY Filament blend w/ no regards to color or material type
I love these videos and there is definitely a plastic waste problem in the US. In fact, I've watched some companies collect plastic bottles for recycling, and then move them to the trash instead after collecting so even though I'm trying to do my part, the people collecting aren't, so eventually I want to begin recycling all my bottles at home. I already collect all my failed prints and my Bambu waste, separating the colored waste from multi-colored prints into bins so I can eventually recycle them into single colors. What I'm most curious about is recycling HDPE into filament and I'm having trouble finding very much info on that. Milk jugs and the cap & ring on soda bottles are HDPE so it'd be neat to see someone grind down and make a filament using those especially since many have vibrant colors. I know it'd take thousands of bottle caps to make a decent amount of filament, it'd be neat.
Other way around. They usually add a small amount of regrind to the virgin mix. Usually 20 to 30% depending on how much scrap you normally have and quality requirements. After plastic has been reground about 6 times, the polymer chains break down enough to really compromise the material strength. The assumption in the % is that you will have a small small percent (scrap) of that get reground and reused over and over, lessening each time. Keeping the regrind percent low minimizes the amount of material that gets reground more than once after getting molded multiple times and keeps the percentage of compromised material practically negligible. In this case you could get away with much higher percent regrind, but keep in mind that even ground just once will have worsened properties than virgin from the long molecular chains being severed. Heat stabilizer additives to help polymerize the material further when heated can also help.
Great Video Stefan, also nice act :-) here is what you could investigate recycle of bottles normally used for laundry agent bottle like ariel color and shine that kind of plastic
All I want to see at this point is PET#1 from the Artme. I'm sorry, but you're the best candidate to make a great informational video on it right now
That red filament in particular looks really good! I think those takeaway containers would be perfect for the next try in recycling. I can choose not to take the cutleries but if I takeaway there is no way to escape the containers and those pile up really fast for me. They are fairly easy for recycling centers to deal with cause they are clearly labelled with the type but some recycling centers here dont accept them. Not sure if that is the fear of the oils and food waste on them.
I have never seen a cutlery tray like the one in your dishwasher. That is amazing. I have a small counter top dishwasher and while it lacks the space for two trays it still makes my dishes very clean. Remember to add a little detergent for pre wash! 😂
I'd love to see an attempt at recycling some of the plastic packaging that comes on certain things, like the clamshell plastic packaging or the plastic they put around the tops of the multi packs of sauces or detergents you can buy at costco (little plastic rings that go over the necks of like 3 bottles, holding them in one 'unit'). Basically the sort of stuff that you get home with, remove from your groceries, and have to toss because its single use packaging.
I'm still thinking about what I would like you to recycle next, but I can tell you that I would love to win that multi-red filament so I could design a lovely Valentine';s print for my wife to show her how much I appreciate the love and care she shows me when I have my all-too-frequent migraines that basically shut me down and make me grumpy. She puts up with way more than she deserves but she sticks by my side and giving her a one-of-a-kind Valentine's print made from one-of-a-kind recycled filament is a small gesture from the heart that I know she'll appreciate.
It would be really interesting to see you make custom fillings, like the coffee filling, and also maybe some others such as sugar?
Seeing the MK8 extruder feeding that pelletizer was really neat!