If you are interested in the field of sustainability, you have most likely run across the work of Janine Benyus before. She is a natural science writer and author of the book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, among others. If you haven’t time to read her work, you should at the very least check out her TED talk, a succint 18 minute exposure to the connection between the processes of design and nature.
Given all that, it should come as no surprise that she is weighing in on the possibilities for making 3D printing into a clean method of manufacturing. She likens the process of building up to a product to the manner by which nature creates and asks, therefore, if there aren’t other opportunities to learn how to make additive manufacturing part of the system rather than a pollutant to it.
“We have to do better, and thankfully, we still have time. This is the moment to redesign manufacturing so that it leapfrogs the missteps of the first industrial revolution. At a minimum, the materials need to be common, safe, and recylcable from the start. Manufacturers need to be able to procure what’s known as feedstock…locally, and then download a digital build file that imparts superior performance through structure. At the end of its life, the product must be ‘unzippable’ so the feedstock can be fed to the printer for reuse. And that’s where biomimicry – the mimicking of nature’s strategies and designs – has a great deal to offer.”
By doing this, additive manufacturing would be participating in a closed system, one where the products of the system are also the ‘food’ for the system, creating a loop. The appeal of her idea is that her push to sustainability in 3D printing isn’t one cloaked in chiding, in a message of deprivation, or in a sentimental anti-technology nostalgia. The most compelling example she provides is that of the spider which builds up its web layer by layer and then consumes it to generate the protein necessary to spin the next one. Some steps have already been made in this direction with the introduction of things such as recycled filament.
The truly interesting thing to ask of the minds at work creating more filament options is: can we design a filament that doesn’t simply do no harm, but actually makes a beneficial contribution to the environment? The Ford auto manufacturing plant at Rouge River, for example, doesn’t simply step lightly, it actually improves the environment by leaving the water cleaner than it was when it entered the factory. Could we create a filament that pulled toxins out of the air rather than one that simply doesn’t add any more to it?
It might not be possible right now, but given the culture 3D printing which values philanthropy, crowd sourcing, and open source design, it’s not a matter of if we can create better, but simply if we will.
Do you agree with Benyus? Let us know in the Green 3D Printing forum thread on 3DPB.com.