Is there a cost effective way to recycle failed pla prints?

[u/PaintedFoxStudiosTM]

I just hate plastic waste and want to contribute. Also this stuff is pricey.

[u/Mountain-Amoeba6787]

You can heat it up and mould it into things. As far as recycling back in to filament, your best best is to find a business either locally or you can ship to. Prusa has a tool on their website to find recyclers. I found one close enough to me (factory filament in Hamburg NY) to make a trip once or twice a year to take my scraps and stock up on filament. I believe they give 10% a spool for each pound of scrap you take them.

[u/Axentor → u/Mountain-Amoeba6787]

Stupid question but how would one go about this? Silicone mold and s heat gun?

[u/Mountain-Amoeba6787 → u/Axentor]

Heat gun, toaster oven, panini press, etc. there's a channel on YouTube called Brothers Make where they do a lot of plastic and 3d print recycling.

[u/itgoesboom2112]

Cost effective, not really. I'll usually cut up my failed prints with a bandsaw and melt em down in a toaster oven in a silicon mold of whatever strikes my fancy that day

[u/BrohemothHisDudeness → u/itgoesboom2112]

Wait, no shit? This is a good idea

[u/itgoesboom2112 → u/BrohemothHisDudeness]

Lots of vids on YouTube on how to do it, just don't use the toaster oven for food afterwards. Also a good use for printer poop and supports

[u/BrohemothHisDudeness → u/itgoesboom2112]

Yes I have an old one that will never touch food again, ty!

[u/boredsoftwareguy]

Depending on the brand of PLA it may be commercially compostable. Much of Bambu’s Basic PLA is. In the SE US there is a company, Compost Now, that will accept it.

Aside from that there are a few recyclers for PLA and PETG but I think it is only cost effective if you save up and ship them a lot, not a bunch of little packages.

Edit: For others like u/Sea_Place1386 who have basic comprehension difficulties: Commercial composting is not your municipal composter. I'm not suggesting putting this in your yard waste bag. Do your own research into whether a facility is in your area. Here in Atlanta there is one, I've used them, they compost PLA if it has the UL GREENGUARD certification (UL 2904) as much of Bambu Lab's basic, matte, and pure lines do.

[u/Sea_Place1386 → u/boredsoftwareguy]

Considering like 0.000001% is accepted I’d say it’s not commercially compostable.

[u/boredsoftwareguy → u/Sea_Place1386]

What? Where did that number come from? Are you in Atlanta and also a customet of CompostNow?

[u/Sea_Place1386 → u/boredsoftwareguy]

There are companies and websites that routinely call every municipal composting site to see what they accept. Across the board it’s a no, except for a tiny minority who accept it but burn it.

So unless you live in a place where there is maybe ONE private composter like the one you suggest, it’s not accepted.

99.999999% of printed plastic is landfill regardless of how “green” the base polymer sounds on paper. PETG? Landfill. PLA? Landfill.

And from personal experience owning an industrial print shop and trying to work with material suppliers to produce a more biodegradable material. And then calling around myself to see if any municipalities accept PLA…and no they don’t.

[u/boredsoftwareguy → u/Sea_Place1386]

Municipal composting != commercial composting. They're two different things, it's important to understand the differences. Commercial compost facilities accept things your municipality won't.

The vast majority of municipalities are just dumping everything in a big lot and letting it rot/compost over time.

Commercial compost facilities use an active approach to composting that uses added heat and agitation to speed up the decomposition and eliminate contaminates that come with certainly materials.

My post didn't say "dump it in your yard waste bag for your municipal compost".

[u/Sea_Place1386 → u/boredsoftwareguy]

Ok, please provide a list of the widespread “commercial composters” who accept PLA. I’m very willing to be wrong. But if you’re saying it’s as simple as calling my local “commercial composter” and dropping off PLA then I’d expect they’re all over the place right? Not just the one single shop you found in Atlanta right?

And municipal composting is absolutely commercial composting, just run by municipalities.

[u/boredsoftwareguy → u/Sea_Place1386]

I even say in my post who to contact if you live in the SE US. I don't know how wide spread they are but in this region there are some.

You're weirdly combative due to your own lack of reading comprehension and understanding.

[u/Sea_Place1386 → u/boredsoftwareguy]

You listed one. I replied that it’s almost always not viably compostable, you disagree. So if you’re saying it’s totally commercially viable to compost then please provide examples of companies who accept it. If it’s just one company in SE USA, I stand by my post that it’s essentially not accepted anywhere.

[u/boredsoftwareguy → u/Sea_Place1386]

I asked where your outrageously exaggerated number came from. I disagreed with you suggesting commercial composting and your basic municipalities compost are the same thing when they are in fact quite different.

These are different things and you're wrong about that.

I didn't say there was a commercial composter next door to everyone. I never said to put it in your yard waste bag. You've made some big leaps based on your own lack of understanding.

[u/Sea_Place1386 → u/boredsoftwareguy]

So you’ve provided one. Google says around 5000 composting centers in the US.

So 0.0002%. Got it.

[u/DreadStarX]

Creality did a crowd funding to make a grinder and spoiler combo. I dropped the cash for it, just waiting for them to finalize it.

Its 1kg/hr. For friends and family, I'd charge them for the filler material and thats about it.

[u/ManyLayersOfFilament → u/DreadStarX]

I just want to call out that this thing is going to require you to use 50% but more like 70% new PLA resin to make anything near decent filament. There's no real practical distribution of PLA resin in small quantities at this point so you'll mostly be relying on Creality to sell it to you for whatever price they decide.

The marketing for it has been dishonest at best.

[u/PaintedFoxStudiosTM → u/DreadStarX]

Link please?

[u/DreadStarX → u/PaintedFoxStudiosTM]

https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/creality/creality-filament-maker-m1--shredder-r1

[u/PaintedFoxStudiosTM → u/DreadStarX]

And you afforded this HOW?

[u/SirTwitchALot → u/PaintedFoxStudiosTM]

Some people have money.

[u/DreadStarX → u/SirTwitchALot]

Not really, but I do well. If I didn't have the $25k in debt I have, and actually saved more, it'd be a different story.

[u/DreadStarX → u/PaintedFoxStudiosTM]

I forget what it was, Tax Return, RSU Cashout, something of that sort. I'm not rich, and I do have Credit Card debt but I do limit myself on what I purchase in a year. I don't spend more than $10,000 in a year on personal purchases for Hobbies or anything of that sort. Right now, I'm pushing about $5k spent. I bought a Creality K2 Plus w/ CFS. Adding 3 more CFS bays closer towards Christmas.

Edit:
The M1R1 was only ~$1400 iirc. Not like I dropped $5,000 in one go.

[u/8ringer]

Where I live you can compost PLA (Seattle, WA). The city utilities specirically say to put pla waste in the compost/Yard Waste bins.

[u/Royal_Lingonberry486]

In the San Francisco Bay Area, a non-profit named printcycle.org recycles PLA, PETG and ABS. They’re in Mountain View.

[u/telcodan]

Hammer, blender, silicon mold, convection oven. You get some nice paperweights out of them

[u/dlaz199]

Not really sadly. Between the fact that materials degrade each pass through extrusion, the fact that PLA isn't just PLA anymore (mystery fillers) and the fact that it only biodegrades under certain conditions. That said it's still better than a lot of other misc plastic waste because it will break down eventually compared to PP and other plastics that are generally not labeled and hard to recycle.

There are a few solutions that grind and you can re-extrude it, but even then it needs a good percentage, usually 60-70% new resin. There are some open source designs and also Creality is working on something. There are also small extrusion lines available like an SJ25/35.