From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for making this project a reality! We are so grateful to our donors and everyone who shared this project or told your friends about it for helping us to be fully funded! What you have contributed to is a sustainability movement in tech that is building momentum for a cleaner campus. To our donors, keep your eyes open for thank you's and your perks, and to everyone, we are humbled by your belief in our work. We couldn't have done this without you! Nicole and Scott

Dear all,

We have 9 days left, so please make sure to share this with your networks! With less than 2 weeks left and 12% of our goal raised, we really hope to make a final campaign push in the last week and release a new perk: for a $50 donation, you will receive a sustainable 3D printing gift package: postcard featuring a handwritten message from Nicole and Scott, a "coupon" for a tour of the facility where Nicole and Scott do research in Moffitt Library and in Etcheverry, and another "coupon" for a free walkthrough/tutorial of the recycling and 3D printing process!

We hope that this new perk attracts friends and family, and we hope that you consider sharing this with your networks and indulging in this new perk!

Much thanks for all of your support, it means a lot to us!

Best,

Scott and Nikki

Dear all,

Wow!! Many, many people are interested in our project. We were featured on Berkeley News: http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/02/15/3d-printer-filament-reclamation-project/, and many people have contacted us with questions. We are so excited about this, that we have released one new perks for our final push of donations: a cal 3d print keychain. Thank you so much for all of our 

That being said, we are only 10% of the way there, with less than two weeks to go, and really hope that these new perks will interest people! Please share with your networks, and check out our article and video if you have not on the UC Berkeley News website!

Thanks for all of your help, we greatly appreciate it!

All the Best,

Scott and Nikki

Hey All,

Check out more about our project in the Berkeley News!

http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/02/15/3d-printer-filament-reclamation-project/ Share with your friends :)

Hello Community,

Thank you so much for your support so far! 

In honor of the two week mark of our campaign, check out this fresh video we made for you! 

https://youtu.be/9a_ZYDcQV0w

We need all the help we can get sharing this crowdfunding page even if you can't donate. Thank you!!

Hi everyone! 

Thanks so much for donating this much so far, it is much obliged. We are needing some help reaching out to others, and we are working hard to try to get our goals achieved. Please share this with your networks to help us! Thank you again, and we look forward to filling you in more on our research!

 We are currently straggling to achieve our goal, with only 3% raised and less than 3 weeks to go, so please consider helping! Anything helps, and we appreciate the time you are taking to read this!

Our names are Scott Silva and Nicole Panditi, and we are working on a project that involves turning failed 3D printer prints and other PLA waste into usable filament. The 3D Printer Filament Reclamation Project, as we like to call it, is a project being led by the Zero Waste Research Center under the Student Environmental Resource Center, in conjunction with the College of Engineering and The Green Initiative Fund. In this project, we are identifying issues in efficiency and automation with this cradle-to-cradle system, and working on streamlining the processes of creating recycled 3D printer filament. Currently, we are lacking the funds to get basic machinery to allow our project to become fully effective, so we are reaching out to you today to ask you for your support. Please look at our crowdfunding page for more info: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/3715.

Currently, Cal Zero Waste collects 17 tons of MSW every day from the campus. Of that amount, 4 tons is plastic waste, with another 3-5 tons of it being aluminum and glass recycling. Currently, this waste gets diverted and transferred to many different refuse centers by a means of “trading” recyclables in efforts to earn higher profits for the materials, causing a system of negative externalities, inefficient trade routes, and large carbon footprints to form. We hope to close this system, and make UC Berkeley more accountable for our waste, while making a marketable and educational product in the process.

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

If this is something you would like to help us accomplish, please consider donating through our UC Berkeley crowdfunding page: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/3715.

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.

Please look at our crowdfunding page for more info: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/3715.

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.

Thank you,

Scott Silva and Nicole Panditi

Zero Waste Research Center