One of the present challenges of 3D printing is that, although you can produce all sorts of bespoke parts that help fix things and avoid them being thrown away, you still end up generating a certain volume of plastic waste. The printer lays down a small test extrusion before each print and “poops” out further filament at various points to maintain nozzle flow. On top of that, I find that I often have to print several test pieces as I dial in the settings; sometimes you need a physical object to test how well your attempts at measurement line up with the real world.

In theory, you can melt down all the waste and create new filament but this isn’t without its challenges. Watch numerous 3D printing channels on YouTube where this has been tried and you see that it can be an expensive investment to get started even apart from the many hurdles that get in the way of producing a good quality filament. Not least, the process of heating the plastic to the point it will melt permanently degrades its material properties. Although the main material I am printing in, PLA, is theoretically biodegradable, there is strong evidence that this is a process which will take years or centuries to happen.

My current favourite solution is to use the waste material as ballast inside new parts that would benefit from a little extra weight. Rather than using printer infill patterns to fill voids, you can pause the print and drop “waste” plastic into the gaps, where it becomes a component of a useful item rather than an ongoing disposal problem. Is it burying the evidence? Perhaps to a certain extent but I’m looking forward to the point when I’m struggling to find ballast to improve the hand feel of the items I print rather than having several containers of printed filament fragments.