From Trash to Treasure: Recycle Cutlery into 3D Filament!

[@CNCKitchen]

🎅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.

[@axelSixtySix]

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.

[@theycallme_nightmaster]

is 0:48 a shot of i70 in Colorado?

[@JonasE-l7q]

@@axelSixtySix i could not have said it better!

[@JonasE-l7q]

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 :)

[@erbium00]

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.

[@VincentGroenewold]

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.

[@precisionleadthrowing4628]

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

[@_renze_]

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.

[@aline.tech.reviews]

@@_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.

[@chilloxik]

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.

[@doords]

It's got to happen at some point. Governments dont have a plan ever. Someone has to do it

[@Dangineering]

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.

[@SetKat-Alex]

Totally agree!

[@fidget2030]

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.

[@themagitechie9955]

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.

[@NonJohns]

Brothers Make did a video on how many times plastic can be recycled i think it was interesting 😊

[@mortalitydoesstuff8965]

I would hope you wouldn't fuck any of the plastic but hey you do you

[@alexdillehay]

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.

[@CNCKitchen]

Congrats, you won some of the filament I made! Please send me a quick message at [e-mail]

[@Kraigasaurous]

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.

[@MetalheadAndNerd]

If you use the used plastic cutlery you might even create some exciting new variants of scented filament.

[@Jeff-ss6qt]

Dog breath benchy.

[@angryalliance4958]

Interesting😃

[@roxasparks]

Nah fam

[@MemewaveKillfeed]

danm thats a good comment

[@BelviGER]

Using hdpe from shampoo and cleaning agent bottles makes for some amazing smelling materials. Hdpe is basically a sponge for odors

[@anthonysciutto]

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.

[@anthonypoole4025]

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!

[@alexanderpierzchala1615]

China and India account for 80% of the great pacific garbage patch. But you won’t hear that covered on CNN or MSNBC

[@JackDavis1111]

You get better engagement when you say it's a US problem.

[@sierraecho884]

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.

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

@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!

[@sierraecho884]

@@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.

[@Jabrils]

This is amazing, & everything I've ever wanted

[@Charlotte_Be_Like]

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

[@the1bmc1]

What about plasic containers from take out food? It feels like a logical next step! As always, good job Stephan!

[@orngjce223]

If it's #6 plastic it can be used just like Shrinky-Dinks! (The other ones, not so much)

[@chilloxik]

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.

[@williambrown1094]

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?

[@lemonsquareFPV]

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.

[@dsp4392]

@@lemonsquareFPV Really wish there were more recyclers around. Completely agree with you that an exchange program is a better use of everyone's time.

[@wikedawsom]

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.

[@wikedawsom]

​@@dsp4392couldn't agree more! Recycling centers could be turning all kinds of plastics into filament

[@orngjce223]

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

[@justdontlook01]

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.

[@DreamsVoid]

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. ❤

[@Justin-cv4oj]

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.

[@jamisonsmith6988]

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!

[@ronnybergmann7569]

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.

[@soundspark]

Heads-up, polypropylene and any other polyolefin is far from a beginner friendly filament.

[@joshuakingsford2895]

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!

[@claylinco]

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!

[@Peter_S_]

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.

[@Chris-1974]

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!

[@shooter913b]

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

[@sail4life]

I would think a coffee grinder might do it. The low speed type with ceramic disks that baristas use, not the blender models.

[@PaulBarkmann]

I don´t make new filament but i recycle plastic with other methods and a classic mixer is the best cheap option @@sail4life

[@beepboopbeepboop190]

@@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.

[@jackh4mrgamin]

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!

[@sciencex-wissenschaftundte2587]

There are Companies even recycling Polypropylene and Polystyrene for 3D printing, could you attempt to recycle these as well? A lot of Plastic waste especially in Germany is labled as one of these Types of plastic and it would help reduce trash a whole lot if recycling those would be possible on a Desktop machine.

[@rejectconvenience]

Love this series on recycling this stuff, keep it up!

[@BitterCynical]

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.

[@802Garage]

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!

[@silverstrings5569]

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!

[@DaveSmith-cp5kj]

Using recycled plastics for medical purposes is a horrible idea.

[@JoshDavis40]

@@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.

[@DaveSmith-cp5kj]

@@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.

[@chilloxik]

​@@DaveSmith-cp5kjand you are very right)

[@eraldylli]

Stefan has always been one for progress and environmentalism. Thank you for all you do. Good, important work, and highly entertaining.

[@edvinlundin]

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

[@Davedarko]

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!

[@norberts.9554]

Thank you for another very interesting video Stefan! I'd love to see PET bottles recycled with your setup.

[@chilloxik]

Not going to work. Shredding will take him for a loop)))

[@Bakamoichigei]

I'd be interested to see if it were possible on the scale you're working at to produce some 'woodfill' style filament, using post-consumer cardboard fibers with a binder of PLA. 🤔

[@Reasor]

If you send me the filament I will 3D print a fork.

[@carnotricecooker]

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)

[@carnotricecooker]

Investigating the use of high-force extruders for injection molding with common plastics would also be quite interesting

[@blastbottles]

Pet would for sure work, not sure about the others

[@chilloxik]

PET won't work. The melting temperature is 245C, not 165C. You would need more expensive extruder for PET.

[@KevinGroninga3D]

I’m totally interested in this extruder! I can see so many opportunities to create usable filament from recycled post-consumer waste plastic. 😊

[@wikedawsom]

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!

[@OpticBlast-yk5hf]

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.

[@chilloxik]

It's not expensive 600 euro, made in Germany.

[@davincidamaster5311]

You should 3d print a spoon with that same filament, bring bringing it back full circle

[@funx24X7]

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?

[@BurntMemoriesAlt]

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.

[@Lolwutfordawin]

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!

[@gsestream]

all-in-one machine, shred, heat, extrude, spool/print etc

[@spedi6721]

Shred a ton of old CDs oder DVDs. Leave the metallic particles inside

[@CNCKitchen]

Good one! Glittery Polycarbonat Filament

[@soundspark]

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.

[@Sembazuru]

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?

[@spedi6721]

@@Sembazuru guess the stuff get burned away and mostly carbon stays.

[@keegan854]

@@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.

[@Fejszi]

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

[@zZGhostCellZz]

Love the recycling videos! maybe try HDPE and ldpe bottles next time, I heard they are hard to 3d print with

[@thelightspeed3d712]

@cnckitchen Stefan, what about adding 30% shredded powdered paper plates? Would it look like ProtoPasta HTPLA fiber filled filament? It has like a paper pulp I think? But I think you should try to add paper shreds to it.

[@filipbyma6130]

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.

[@KeksSektor]

I would like to see you add composites to the recycled material. Like carbon or glass fibers. I can imagine that fine-tuning the extruder for the laminar flow of the fibers could be very tricky.

[@heysiri5483]

I would absolutely love to see a company take this idea and insert it on a large scale! Great job

[@chilloxik]

'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.

[@Turtle_1976]

Tupperware! You could try recycling different forms of Tupperware, including the new cheap stuff that you can get everywhere. Or, what about the very old vintage Tupperware? The stuff that litters thrift stores everywhere as well as home cupboards. Can you do anything with that kind of plastic?

[@QuangNguyen-wb5kd]

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.

[@marc_frank]

build another extruder and feed the output of the first into the second

[@DonsArtnGames]

Another area that i see a lot of waste is the packaging of foods. I wonder how recyclable they are for 3D printing. Also, polyester clothing. could that be recycled into filament? Would polyester/cotton blends be considered "natural fibers" reinforced?

[@MrHeksas]

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.

[@ChronOJohn2]

Recycling PLA Shopping-Bags would be interesting to see.

[@NicosKaralis]

Awesome idea and execution. I just have one question You mentioned that the smell of pasta was still on the finished print, to me, that means that there are still bio residues from the food. Can you place the printed pieces in a hot and humid environment to check if the residues are enough to make it mold?

[@villekorhonen824]

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.

[@likeprogrammer]

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 ❤

[@sprN0VA]

Very cool! Would love to see you try recycling the actual spools for the filament.

[@Barbasnoo]

Excellent video as always. Your attention to detail is impeccable.

[@francisgravel6593]

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.

[@chrisoverson]

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.

[@bonovoxel7527]

Happy Christmas, Stefan! 🎄

[@CNCKitchen]

Happy holidays!

[@Daniel-lk3sy]

Could you even do like a pens like the plastic of the pens like the housing the pen caps like or markers for that matter just taking the innards out and just simply wash out the marker and just reuse the marker materials like the Plastics of it and see if that can be run into a new filament?

[@martinfamily8018]

Dude, we need you to make new spoons, knives, etc with the filiment. that would be awesome

[@SmallTreasures]

Hey, i'm from Germany and i regularly send my pla and petg leftovers to Recycling Fabrik, which is a Company that recycles that stuff. Depending on how much u send them, and in which condition, u get points that u can use for buying new recycled filament from them. I think they use other plastic material, too. Nice Video. Can u oversee your overall costs for the recycling process? That would be very interesting to me.

[@besewaxe4985]

I love that this channel is eco conscious there's so much waste in 3d printing especially recently and I don't see a lot of people that care.

[@OwenRothwell-m1k]

Polyester is technically PET, so you could try recycling that. That would be an interesting challenge to recycle.

[@theboldfuture2341]

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!

[@hermei8828]

I don't know if this is possible or realistic, but in the lab we use a lot of pipette tips in one sitting, so maybe recycling those would be a good option.

[@jamilacreates]

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.

[@Korykory77]

Nice results and filaments! Love the gradient red ! Can you recycle the spools of filaments ? I always end up throwing them since it takes so much space. I would love to recycle myself so I Hope that we will have soon an affordable and convenient way to do it.

[@Arek_R.]

Aren't you supposed to use masterbatch in fine powder form for such a small extruder?

[@CNCKitchen]

That's what I got. I might try pigment powder in the future, though.

[@Arek_R.]

@@CNCKitchen I believe you're supposed to throw some with the pellets and then mix it all cold so the powder coats all the pellets. Also not sure if it's a thing but you could use normal masterbatch with small amount of PLA, extrude it, then chop it back into pellets and you would have more but less dense masterbatch that will mix better on low scale.

[@positron5687]

This could be the spark we need in a world full of flammable plastic! Thank you a lot. I think it will be a bit more difficult, but try to recycle European food packaging.

[@ZeroAnkoku]

I would love to see how other variants of plastic could be incorporated to a batch of recycled pellets ie; plastic bags, caps etc!

[@leroyjenkin3566]

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

[@sk-hobbies]

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 :)

[@The_McFortner]

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.

[@chaymber_crafts]

I saw cutlery that had calcium powder mixed with pla, making it more heat resistant for hot food. Perhaps experiment adding that?🤔

[@kajatoth9151]

I don't know if it's possible, but you could try recycling bar wrapper or yogurt cup. There are many products that use more plastic than the actual food

[@PoldLp]

I would be interested to know if old Lego (ABS) can be recycled 😅

[@UncleRedz]

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.

[@michaelramos4482]

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

[@SheldonMcGee]

Love the red. Perfect for the holidays! 🎁

[@kahu_963]

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.

[@konstantinosstavrou7638]

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.

[@martijngeel9224]

I also have e pile of empty spools laying around. I plan to recycle them, but i don't know how.

[@ericdavey5570]

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.

[@berendhordijk2433]

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.

[@DMonZ1988]

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!

[@thomasfeix7979]

Tennis Strings! Either use broken ones for printing or extrude your own Tennis Strings. Their diameter is usually around 1.25mm, so not too far off.

[@flolorenzo]

I'm very curious if you could recycle the vaccum bags every filament comes with

[@ardennielsen3761]

old truck ratchet straps are some type of nylon plastic that melts too?

[@kr15uk]

Just had a quick dig through my recycling bin just now and most of the plastics apart from PET are HDPE, back in a day (early reprap) I used to have bit of HDPE filament given me by someone, don’t believe I ever had successful print with it but those were the early days when everything was horrible to print! 😁 Wondering if it’s any different with decent machines nowadays…

[@S1L3NTIGamer]

So I work in plastic thermoforming previously worked in injection molding and while we don’t use post consumer recycles, we typically use anywhere between 45%_50% recycled material (typically directly sourced from an inline grinder.) so your 50/50 mix was a really good choice. It should be said that you can recycle the recycled parts as well, you just have to add in that virgin material every time to dilute any extra thermally degraded material.

[@Scott_C]

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?

[@marku32125]

Erstmals tolles Video Stefan es ist extrem wie gut das Ergebnis wurde, es wäre sehr interessant was dabei rauskommen würde wenn du verschiedene Materialien fürs Recycling verwendest z.B. PET Flaschen mit PLA Besteck und ABS Gehäuseteilen gemischt.

[@maxmartinweiland3738]

We have a lot of roundbale nets. I always wondered if it would be possible to make filament from it.

[@BeefIngot]

That bit at 11:30 was hilarious to me. Like for some reason I expected him to actually like eat his dinner with the cutlery then he just made a cutlery lasagna in the next shot 😂

[@Veerorith]

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.

[@tadeastehan7275]

Hi, it would be great to recycle PET bottle caps as there are many of them. If we could recycle the caps as well, we could already recycle the whole plastic bottle, as we can already recycle bottle, which would be brilliant.

[@Thee_Sinner]

It took me alomst a year to convince myself to just throw away my failed prints. I wish I had a way to reuse my plastic...

[@TechBM311]

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.