As 3D printing becomes more common, so too does the plastic waste it creates.
But a group of University of Colorado students has found a way to repurpose that waste, turning it into reusable sheets that have been used for various projects across the Boulder campus.
As 3D Printing Industry reports, CU undergraduate student Ian McLeod led a team that wanted to figure out a sustainable way to repurpose failed 3D prints and the excess filament left over from these projects. The team worked with engineers and students from the university's Integrated Teaching and Learning Program to create the groundbreaking process.
They grind this excess filament into small pieces, which are pressed into flat sheets using a T-shirt press. Those durable sheets provide free, recycled plastic to those who need it for projects such as laser-cutting.
"Incorporating recycled plastic into hands-on engineering education turns what would have been waste into a shared resource for students," program director Kai Amey said in a university release. "By making these materials freely available, we are reducing our environmental impact while giving students new opportunities to innovate and create."
The 3D printing market is expected to grow more than 400% between 2023 and 2030. But with that growth also comes a growing amount of plastic waste.
Plastic consumption and waste are some of the biggest problems facing our planet. Studies show that nearly 80% of the plastic made in history currently sits in landfills or the environment. And because plastic breaks down into tiny pieces called microplastics, it has resulted in tens of trillions of pieces of plastic that pollute our oceans.
The CU team's innovative system is clearly helping to reduce plastic waste and promote a more circular economy. They won first place at the Campus Sustainability Summit and have now published instructions to allow others to replicate their process.
Funding has even helped to buy the team a polymer shredder to make their process more consistent and scalable.
"What excites me most about this project is that this started with students who saw a problem and decided to solve it," Amey said in the release. "By backing their creativity with mentorship and resources, we are not only cutting down on waste, we are showing future engineers that they have the power to drive real change."
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