Problem Statement

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The world is undergoing a plastic waste crisis. Islands of plastic now reside in our oceans. Invisible microplastics have contaminated our food and water. As part of its National Sword policy, China has cracked down on the types of plastic it will accept, leaving American recycling facilities scrambling to find more ethical and local methods to process plastic waste [1]. 

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Against such an ecopolitical backdrop, consumer pressure for companies to go green has mounted. Unfortunately, most companies are simply greenwashing their operations, and their supposedly sustainable products aren’t as “green” as promised. For example, although PLA, a composite polymer derived from bioproducts such as corn and cassava root, is widely marketed as a completely compostable plastic, intensive biodegradation is required and most facilities lack the financial resources to process this material [2].  According to a report from Samantha Lubow, the Environment Initiatives Coordinator for CalDining, UC Berkeley purchases roughly 3 million disposable PLA products every year [3]. Even if students compost these products, the facilities simply cannot afford to process them, and the material goes to waste.

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Recently, PLA has become popularized in medical research, especially in conjunction with 3D printing, since PLA is non-toxic and is good for detail work [4]. However, as pointed out in their introductory 3D printing training, the Makerspace at UC Berkeley points out the myriad of issues a designer can encounter during 3D printing, ranging from too much extrusion to too little infill. 3DMC, the 3D printing organization on campus, estimates that 50% of prints fail. With over a hundred 3D printers on the UC Berkeley campus, failed prints are mostly sent to the landfill, which is not only a waste of resources but is harmful to the environment [5]. This problem can be alleviated through implementing a closed-loop system that collects failed prints and recycles them into viable 3D printing filament.

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Our project currently caters to the UC Berkeley campus, but sustainable 3D printing filament will easily catch on in other campuses and other makerspaces. At UC Berkeley, the standard membership cost for makerspaces is $100 per semester, which can be expensive for many students.  By giving schools the technology to make full use of PLA waste as a resource instead of a liability, we will not only make 3D printing more sustainable by implementing circular economies, but also more affordable and accessible to future innovators.

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