As a final perk to help minimize any environmental impact from its products, 3D Printlife donates a dollar from the sale of every Enviro ABS spool to plant a tree.īuzz sees an environmental impact with Enviro ABS and also a market impact. Sustainability as a Market Differentiatorīecause Buzz believes so strongly in caring for the planet, he goes the extra mile with his sustainability efforts. He says, “There was no point in delivering an eco-friendly material on a plastic spool that is just going to continue to propagate the problem we are trying to solve.” So Buzz got back to work.Įventually, 3D Printlife found a company to make spools out of heavy recycled cardboard that is biodegradable, and bound with a recyclable tin end cap. With his company’s new eco-friendly filament - Enviro ABS - going to market, Buzz couldn’t stand the idea that they were going to ship the filaments wound around non-biodegradable waste. This was done because the spools had to be strong enough to withstand the tightly wound filament. When Buzz got into the filament business, the accepted standard was to package materials on spools that were also made of ABS plastic. This background was the driving influence behind another of 3D Printlife’s innovations. I try really hard to make sure that everything makes it into the proper bin - it’s emotionally uncomfortable for me when that doesn’t work out.” “I basically grew up in the woods,” says Buzz. He attributes it to growing up in New Hampshire where his parents’ property bordered a state park. Green to the Coreīuzz has always had a mindset of sustainability and environmental responsibility. They created a filament that was every bit as strong as normal ABS, but which would also degrade under the right conditions. Ultimately, Buzz and his team were successful. They began the process of testing and refinement to find the right combination and balance of the biochemist’s additives with the ABS plastic. Buzz’s conversation with the biochemist kicked off 18 months of hard work. Buzz points out that many 3D printer manufacturers use a 3D printer to create 3D printer parts.īecause ABS is the preferred high-durability 3D printer filament for engineering customers, 3D Printlife’s eco-friendly ABS had to be just as strong and long lasting. It’s strong, durable, and UV resistant, and that makes it good for printing mechanical parts. To understand how strong and durable ABS plastic is, think about the last time you accidentally walked barefoot across your child’s Lego set. I immediately jumped at the idea.” And that was the start of making an eco-friendly ABS that maintained the same characteristics of a high-performance plastic. Buzz says, “We talked about plastics used in 3D printing and he really lit up over the idea that he might be able to tweak one of his formulas to get it to bond with ABS, causing it to degrade in the same way as other plastics. The Unknown, Eco-Friendly World of Bioplasticsīio-additives - used in petroleum based thermoplastic products like shampoo bottles - are specially formulated to be consumed by bacteria once they enter a landfill to energy facility or a commercial compost. It certainly took trial and error and hard work to get there, but a little luck never hurt anything - especially when it comes to saving the Earth. He refers to the meeting as a “happy accident” that led to 3D Printlife’s unique, environmentally friendly, 3D printing filament made of durable ABS plastic. We don’t necessarily like it, but we’re sort of stuck with it.”įast forward to a chance meeting in 2014 with a biochemist in the Boston area who specializes in bioplastics, and Buzz’s whole paradigm shifted. He says, “At the time we just looked at it how we look at a lot of things in life. People using 3D printers had to decide between protecting the environment or making a durable product.īuzz also understood this trade off. The eco-friendlier options simply didn’t have the durability for commercial use. First, everyone knew that the strongest, most durable printing filament was not environmentally friendly. When Buzz Baldwin, co-founder of 3D Printlife, started his company in 2011, there were certain accepted facts about the 3D-printing industry. We’re revealing how they minimize environmental impact through new thinking, products, and designs. Making 3D Printing Durable and Sustainableįor Earth month, we’re profiling people who have used great design to solve the problem of waste in our environment.
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