Reduce 3D Printing Waste at Berkeley

If you're familiar with 3D printing, you know about the piles of plastic trash (failed prints, tangled spools, vetoed prototypes) that it generates. For a technology of the future, that's not a very forward-thinking way to operate, right? At the 3D Printing Recycling Project, we believe in the educational power of 3D printing, but we also know there is a greener way to do it. We are building the student-led, on-campus infrastructure for 3D printing recycling at UC Berkeley, so that all of that plastic trash is turned right back into filament and can be 3D printed again. The benefits of our in-house recycling over traditional recycling include:

- Existing infrastructure in our area cannot process the most commonly used 3D Printing plastics, so they just go to the landfill

- Saving educational labs money, since one spool of new filament can cost around $25

- Saving upwards of 50lbs of plastic trash from the landfill each month!

- Making 3D printing a greener technology

We hope you will be a part of this revolution! Please consider making a gift so that we can make this a reality.

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The money we raise here will go to:

- Purchasing an industrial plastics grinder for reclaiming the plastic, and other non-disposable equipment (around $4000)

- Safety equipment and training needed for using this grinder (around $200)

- Electrical components needed to automate the extruder (around $500)

- Other supplies for the project such as replacement nozzles, extrusion cooling system, etc. (around $300)

Gifts made to UC Berkeley will be subject to a 5% philanthropic allocation fee. A 2.5% credit card transaction fee will also apply.

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For questions and comments about this project, please contact Scott at sfs1997@berkeley.edu.

Please donate and share this page on Facebook! Every donation helps us to make 3D Printing at Berkeley more environmentally responsible. Thank you for your time.