The Filastuder
One question arises quite often when talking to people who utilize FDM 3D printers on a daily basis. What do you do with your 3D printed scraps and junk? When an object doesn’t print correctly or when an object just simply is not wanted or needed any longer, where do they eventually end up? Most likely they get tossed in a the trashcan, and end up in a landfill for the next 500 years before the earth reclaims them. That filament that you paid $40/roll for becomes wasted money.
One 15-year-old boy, named Grayson Galisky, has taken it upon himself to make 3D printing more ecologically friendly, and affordable.
“My goal is to create a recycling program to recycle 3D printer waste back into usable filament,” Galisky explains. “Filament is in a sense, 3D printer ‘ink’ or what a 3D printer uses to print with. Every day 3D printers around the world have failed prints, and this plastic is thrown away. What if I could change that? I realized through Kickstarter this could be more than just a goal, it could be real.”
Galisky plans on launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for his projet sometime within the next month or so. His project will not only recycle old “trash” prints, but he will also create some very unique looking ‘multicolor 3D priner filament’.
Multicolored Filament
Galisky has a 3D printer in his home, as well as access to 3D printing at his high school. After learning about and using this technology for close to a year, he realized that something needed to be done. “The idea of recycling struck me when I saw a Kickstarter about machines that could create filament, and I wondered if I could recycle failed prints from my school’s 3D printer,” he explained.
If his Kickstarter campaign is successful, Galisky plans on opening a filament recycling store, where he will provide several recycling services, including the following options to customers:
- Option 1: Allows people to donate their scrap plastic.
- Option 2: Allows people to send their scrap plastic in, and for every 2kg sent in, they will be sent 1kg of recycled filament free of charge.
- Option 3: Allows people to send in their scrap plastic in exchange for having it ground up and returned to them.
Some backer rewards
Galisky guarantees that the returned filament will be useable in all FDM 3D printers, and plans to make his pricing opions as low as possible for those simply looking to purchase his recycled filament, including his multicolored options.
The Kickstarter goal will be set at $4,999, and backers will be rewarded with things ranging from a personalized thank you card, to large quantities of recycled multicolor or solid color filament.
What do you think? Will you be contributing to Galisky’s Kickstarter campaign? Discuss in the Filament Recycling Store thread on 3DPB.com.