3D Printing with Recycled Garbage: How Are The Results?

[@thenextlayer]

Thank you for watching! Let me know what you thought of this video, and whether or not you'd like to see more like it. I ALWAYS read your comments, and I LOVE your feedback!

[@olegvelichko1659]

Love the idea of having Stefan test this out! If it’s close to other plastics in terms of durability this could certainly take off, which will drive the price down due to economies of scale.

[@mildlemon7866]

They seem to be very proud of _not_ heating it much - but no word whether they heat it _enough_ to microbiologically sterilize it in the process. I don't wanna have the very diverse biom (incl bacteria, virii and funghi) of a used diaper of a sick child in my printing environment!

[@tromtacular]

I’m guessing the chemical process itself generates enough heat to kill microorganisms, but I’d like that reassurance too.

[@glittalogik]

Always keen to learn about new innovations, especially ones that reduce and re-use waste at any stage of the cycle. I'm still hoarding bags of PLA waste/misprints until I have enough to make it worth driving to the nearest local drop-off point, so this has been on my mind quite a bit lately 😅 One small and very subjective format opinion - the side-by-side interview Q&A setup feels a bit old-fashioned talk show to me. The off-camera style - you sitting to one side of the camera, with the interviewee in frame and facing you - allows for more natural conversation that you can then cut with B-roll and edit/reorder/tighten up into a well-paced narrative.

[@wesleyluce4609]

I am SO excited to see progress like this in 3d printing. I got into printing because I wanted freedom and sustainability in the world of plastics. Im really hoping this can get consumerized in the US.

[@thenextlayer]

That's awesome, I'm so happy to see the positive response to this video :)

[@HaxR3]

Is there really any demand for a material that's 4x weaker than PLA, while being more expensive than carbon reinforced nylon 12?!

[@BlackDragonBE]

@@HaxR3 Maybe for organizations that might get money from the government for being "green" or something. For an individual like myself? Hell no.

[@AndyDeMeyer]

I love the direction you are taking here 😉 Definitely love to see more videos like this. I would definitely want to use filament like this for prototyping and such. Hell I would even want to print with a recycled ASA. Do you know if UBQ itself can also be recycled? I also liked your mention of courses on Skillshare, actually interested in what courses on platforms like Udemy and Skillshare you used to level in 3D, 3D printing and related topics

[@thenextlayer]

Thanks for the comment, and glad to hear you'd be interested in more vids like this :)

[@thomasloven]

Makes me think of a video I'd like to see. How about clearing up the myth(?) about composting PLA once and for all?

[@thenextlayer]

Stefan @CNC Kitchen did a great video on this!

[@thomasloven]

Thanks for the tip! Got exactly the results I expected…

[@privateprivate8366]

😂😂🤣 This falls in line with an idea one of my cats has. He would like his very own 3D printer, that he could poop into, to print statues of himself.😂

[@cbs1710]

* insert Slate3D's rant about filament prices here *

[@gavinclark3187]

Saving the world one Benchy at a time

[@thenextlayer]

Yessir! Think of all the carbon captured :)

[@ianmcleod8898]

I'd like to see where 3d printing is now recognized as a tool for prototyping verses ways before 3d printing.

[@nicksmith1415]

Great video, great product and only the beginning. I've been saying for years that we'll see people digging up landfill sites for plastics one day. Slightly off subject. What have you done with the Makita colour match filament? Another lover of Makita. Dying to see what you've done

[@zachellis1902]

I would use it. A majority of what I make doesn't need to be strong. I paint a lot of it and am mostly concerned about it printing well. Having something more environmentally friendly and affordable would be awesome

[@rahimdamji9602]

Dude this is an awesome video! I really would love to use this stuff!

[@MatrixRay19]

Companies and countries can get and trade carbon credits for money, thus reverting some of the cost when using this material, which is pointless to a consumer since they're not getting any money back from this expensive and poor quality material.

[@freako22]

I’m sure their still developing it. Might get better in the future, but I see your point.

[@Roobotics]

I'm definitely at 2 minds for this project, it's keeping garbage out of the landfill. But 100$ for a 1kg spool that is worse than PLA is a pretty hard sell. The fact they had to split it into goofy half kg spools instead of bulk 3 or 5kg spools is the opposite of where I'd expect this to be going.. I would expect there to be be significant government subsidies for making landfill trash literally disappear. If that's being applied to this current price is a question. Another is how is the air quality, VOC measurements vs things like PLA and ABS please, more important than the percieved smell, is if it's better or worse for you to be printing with it.

[@SianaGearz]

I don't think the price matters, after all you're paying a prototype pricing here; scaled to mass production it could cost basically nothing, since apparently there is neither high energy expenditure nor labour expenditure. What concerns me more is that the manufacturer isn't willing to nail them to the wall with any definitive number as to how much recycled material it contains, not even a conservative lower bound, which to me makes it untrustworthy. Mixing PP and PE sets off a big red flag for me. It's a possibility that you get a terrible compromise in material fidelity and endurance for a very very small decrease in landfill, which makes it landfill fodder right off the bat with a large negative environmental impact. If it's actually useful and not just greenwashing, they should be willing to prove it.

[@Roobotics]

@@SianaGearz good information, though I did find this on their site that might help. "A USDA BioPreferred Certified Product, UBQ™ contains at least 50% bio-based content."

[@hardwareful]

tl;dr: they're turning waste into FILLER for polymers, not into the actual filament.

[@mctazman407]

🎉Bergen op Zoom🎉Finally, some Dutch representation in the recycling space

[@thenextlayer]

Yeah!!!

[@djispro4272]

Awesome! I would like to hear more about 3D printing innovations, but I wish there was an accessible 3DP waste recycling service... so we can bridge the gap in the meantime until UBQ filaments get cheap and accessible. P.S Also, please send the rest of the spool to Stefan so he can properly test it!

[@thenextlayer]

I wish so, too. I want to see RecyclingFabrik franchise, but it will take time :)

[@djispro4272]

@@thenextlayer Yeah, I have seen RF on CNC Kitchen but I think Prusa should figure something out, since they have one of the biggest print farms and at that scale, they have to do something with the printing waste

[@conorstewart2214]

They claim it takes on the properties of materials it is blended with but with your strength test it has much lower strength, so I think that may just be a marketing claim. Interesting they didn’t send you a spool of the better one to try out too, maybe it isn’t much better and if you have low results with the easy one then they can just claim that is just because it is the easy one.

[@colincampbell3679]

a Non-runner.. when we already have low cost filaments made from Corn Starch or Soy Bean Starch. Which are recyclable.

[@geometerfpv2804]

"Recyclable" is a stretch...very few facilities recycle PLA, it requires specialized equipment. Only a tiny, tiny portion of the PLA out there ends up anywhere besides a landfill. Apparently the equipment needed is pretty advanced.

[@tenchuu007]

I'll try it out. Likely usable for my purposes, but that price makes me wince. I'm sure the shipping won't be good either.

[@X7Hide]

I’m running a printfarm that is biggest in my city. To be realistic, we would love to use these type of materials when we are checkking prototype prints untill mass production stage. BUT it needs to be dirt cheap us to use a bad hydrocopic filament like that. I buy high quality filaments in bulk average is $11-12. They need to sell it $7-8 range to justify. I’m sad to say that but if they cant bring price to $7-8 in bulk, they are gonna fail with project. (At least about the filament part.)

[@zalllon]

I think the best application for this type of product a large scale, is to use it at a price point on par (or better) for infrastructure (roads, bridges, combine with concrete).

[@conorstewart2214]

How sustainable is it really? You may need to use thicker walls and more infill to get a strong enough part compared to other materials, so you would use more material, it would take longer to print which uses more electricity and the part would be heavier and still probably weaker too. Also how much moisture does it reabsorb? If you have to dry a lot out of it and it had a lot as waste then it might absorb a lot of moisture, it would be interesting to see this tested. Also has there been any testing on the safety of the filament? Does it contain bacteria or undesirable chemicals? Any chemicals in the waste are probably unlikely to go away. There is a lot more in waste and even organic products than lignin and cellulose, have they properly tested the filament to make sure it is absolutely safe? A common problem with recycling filament in general, never mind making it out of general waste is that the properties can vary drastically. Do they have this issue too? What can be done with this plastic after? Can it be recycled itself?

[@koringer]

But the spool is made with what appears to be a brand new clear plastic... The spool should be in the same material as the filament.

[@logicalfundy]

Interesting - but color me a bit skeptical. The reject rate has to be really high, and trash can have toxic or otherwise unsafe materials in it. I doubt it will scale up very well.

[@jaydekaytv]

This is crazy

[@bwselectronic]

The filament is a work in progress. As with many of these type things, time will tell how viable an option it is. Theory and practical use in reality, can be a galaxy apart

[@DrZhenya]

Great video as usual :-) Would you share what type of light setup did you use in this video? You two are a little over exposed, so just wondering.

[@thenextlayer]

They’re apututure 200ds and I forgot to adjust ISO! Lol

[@user-hd2zy3md4o]

I love the idea of printing with actual landfill!

[@sweetasdude]

Love the vid, conflicted though, I feel the solution is more at the point of disposal and classification of waste which would lead to efficiencies in the recycling, and quality of the end product. Full credit to this company for addressing an issue, though, like GPU manufacturers, I never trust the stats, and the cost of the end product makes it unsustainable.

[@SianaGearz]

This gives me big pause. Famously, PE and PP are absolute compatibility pests. Introducing just a little of one into the other just completely ruins the plastic cohesion. And here they mixed all of this together including PE and PP done some voodoo and apparently the resulting concoction is good to add to either PP or PE or any number of other things? However, if someone wanted to dig, they have patents right? They can't be running purely on trade secret. And i think it's completely unfair that the manufacturer won't specify how much waste material (minimum bound) is contained in the filament. Because "significantly composed" could mean 7% - it's not "insignificant" by some measures right? If your soup contained 7% flies and hair, you'd deem it pretty significant, wouldn't you. While what you're thinking of, wishing for, is probably closer to 70%. We don't need to know an exact figure, let that be their trade secret, but we need some sort of minimum bound we can calculate with, because this determines how we value this material, like if they said it contains "more than 50%", that would be a figure one could use to estimate the usefulness of material in landfill reduction. It's not that i don't want to trust trust corporations, but i only trust them as far as they make definitive statements that one could nail them to, and not just play with your imagination.

[@EEEEMMMMKKKK]

I would love to see a solution to our failed prints,brims,supports and bambu purges because it really makes me sad about this nice hobby.

[@conorstewart2214]

They can be recycled, there are quite a few videos about it on KZbin. I believe Stephan fron CNC Kitchen has a video on recycling PLA, and so do quite a lot of the other main 3D printing channels. The problem is that recycling the filament isn’t common yet. There are companies that do it but they are few and far between. It’s not really worth recycling it into filament at home but I have seen people grind it up and melt it into flat sheets that they then use for other things. That might appeal to you if you find yourself using plastic or wooden sheets.

[@8bitparty-pl]

👍🏻

[@Gromic2k]

cool, but i don´t believe it

[@tromtacular]

So it’s fairly abrasive, requires drying straight out of the pack AND is only 25% the strength of PLA?! Tough sell. It’s a start though (IF you believe petroleum-based plastics are ‘bad’ for the environment). The manufacturer should adequately dry their product prior to vacuum-sealing and distribution (otherwise, are we truly buying ‘500 grams’ of filament?). Oil is a renewable resource. I personally view petroleum based plastics as more environmentally friendly (as the chemical processes this company is spruiking has already been performed by the earth… which the earth keeps doing as ALL fauna and flora (including paper etc) decomposes and seeps down through earth and rock layers and finds its way back to ‘oil deposits’ (which is why old ‘dry’ oil wells have oil in them again decades later when uncapped and checked). Sorry, massive (debatable) tangent there. 😂 Petroleum based plastics aren’t CO2 added to the atmosphere; They are captured Carbon… so instead of wasting corn (a food) through PLA production, petroleum-based plastics are the most friendly type for the environment and for human survival. You’re welcome to conclude differently to me of course. Opinions are diverse regarding inherent facts, but by all means correct me with facts if you’d like people like me to conclude differently.

[@thenextlayer]

I don’t think the science here checks out because it takes a lot of carbon to produce petroleum based plastics and they’re also a biproduct of fuel production. I think the consensus is that the carbon is better off captured in the ground than in the air which is what happens when you produce plastics. But, that’s just to the best of my knowledge.

[@geometerfpv2804]

A good rule of thumb...if you find yourself with an opinion that is in direct contradiction with something that is widely agreed upon and is something measurable, you are probably wrong. People love these contrarian opinions for some reason...turns out everyone says plastic is bad for the environment because plastic is actually bad for the environment. The problem is that it can't be explained to a non-expert (which is why your request for "facts" probably goes unanswered). Is that really that surprising though? I am a professional researcher in math. Here is a fact for you: Every compact strictly positively curved Riemannian manifold has at least one conjugate points after which any geodesic fails to be a length minimizer. As length increases, conjugate points accumulate at least as fast as they do in a sphere of the same constant positive curvature. There is absolutely no way I could explain to you what these words mean. It doesn't matter how badly you wanted to know, or how much time you have. It took me nearly a decade of full time work to learn to interact with this language. It's a fact, though...doesn't make it any less true. Environmental research is every bit as advanced as math research. Why would you expect to be able to understand it? At some level, our society is based on inter-personal trust. If you have zero trust, you can barely know anything at all. Individuals are not very powerful at knowing, it's the networked group that gives us power. If you are completely untrusting of the group of scientists...then you're just not gonna know things, period. You are just going to be victim to whatever "sort of makes sense" theory someone gives you, and it's very easy to make false things sound like they make sense. The truth is unbelievably complicated.

[@kronkie131]

HOLLAND i live in holland LETSSS GOOOOO

[@thenextlayer]

Woooo

[@darren990]

bet it prints like cr*p lol

[@thenextlayer]

It needs a LOT LOT LOT of drying, that's for sure

[@tenchuu007]

OK, I went onto their site to order it but on the payment page it asks for what I think is "ID" in Hebrew. I don't know any Hebrew at all, or what sort of ID is needed in Israel! Help! @thenextlayer

[@abram3189]

😋 *promosm*