Plastic pollution has become one of the most persistent environmental concerns, as a constant increase of the demand and production of disposable plastic products, overpassing the environment’s ability to decompose them. Sadly, the plastics industry fails to recognize the propagation of social and political changes regarding single-use plastics, especially, plastics made from fossil fuels.
Plastic pollution is an issue that stresses worldwide cooperation, similar to climate change. Studies reveal that the production of plastics from fossil fuel is only cost effective when the components not used for plastics are used for energy production, treating plastic more as a byproduct of the industry. Therefore, if the industry transitions away from fossil fuels, and towards renewable resources, then the production of wasteful single-use plastic could be severely reduced, if not completely eliminated.
Regardless of the benefits, 3D printing generates large amounts of waste, to enumerate some, starting from the result of failed prints to rejected support structures. Furthermore, the ability to create components without machining or tools causes that many prints are used as disposable prototypes.
Generally, most “Eco-Friendly” plastic filaments aren’t easy to find and neither a cheap alternative, but recycled filament could be an option that helps reduce the CO2 footprint, following the criteria of the 6R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Redesign and Remanufacture), PLA (polylactic acid) and ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) are the most promising regarding the fabrication of “green” filament, ranging from a factory process to a domestic plastic extruder.
ABS is a petroleum derivate product, generally recyclable and PLA is biodegradable and bioactive thermoplastic derived from resources such as corn, roots, sugarcane and other renewable resources.
Nowadays, market offers various filaments made from second hand PLA, PET, ABS, and HIPS. Re-Filament, a Dutch startup company made filament from recycled plastic bottles (PET) and old car dashboards (ABS), other commercially available filament spools from HIPS are made from old refrigerators or automotive parts.
Plastics and “green choice” usually don’t go together as most plastic materials are made from petroleum, these include: polyethylene, PVC, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyester, nylon and acrylic.
In the past decades, the search for an eco-friendly alternative to petroleum based plastics has led to the development of several bioplastics; materials specifically made from renewable resources and therefore diminishing the amount of energy required to produce them. Some are made from plants, most often from sugar cane or cornstarch, although they can also be produced from potatoes, or other plants, these plastics are often referred to as PLA (PolyLactic Acid or PolyLactide) or Cellulose Acetate.
Bioplastics are generally considered to be more eco-friendly than traditional plastics, this isn’t necessarily true, and bioplastics have a significantly lower carbon-footprint than traditional plastics over their lifetime. But in order to degrade bioplastics, most of them need high temperature industrial composting facilities to break down the material in less than 3 months, but it will take about 1,000 years to degrade in a landfill.
Very few cities have the infrastructure needed to degrade bioplastics and the problem magnifies when these plastics are not separated correctly from other plastic types such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate). The problem is when plastics get recycled, they are not compatible and the resulting plastic batch may get rejected as a consequence.
The alternatives bioplastics are limited, PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) is one of them, a plastic made from living things. PHA is a unique polyester made naturally by certain bacteria, generally from organic waste. It is used to make plastic bags and single use containers; in the medical field is where this material shines, thanks to its biodegradability it can be used to make sutures, bone plates, orthopedic pins, etc.
PHA is biocompostable and marine degradable and has no toxic effects, but currently is difficult and expensive to produce.
Source: University of Florida, Columbia University
Columbia University
https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/12/13/the-truth-about-bioplastics
University of Florida
https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/media/sfylifasufledu/flagler/sea-grant/pdf-files/microplastics/Bioplastics-vs-petroleum-plastic-final.pdf