When it comes to 3D printing, how much sustainability is enough?

"Just because the field is progressing does not mean we have grounds for complacency."

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All students of the environment learn the three cardinal rules of sustainability: reduce, reuse and recycle. And as we look to the future, pundits and thought leaders routinely point to 3D printing as a solution for improving and streamlining manufacturing to something leaner, greener and more environmentally friendly.

Farms and factories require massive emission outputs and loads of energy. Small polymer 3D printing systems, on the other hand, are fuelled with little effort. But additive manufacturing is not a magic bullet. Is 3D printing more sustainable than traditional manufacturing methods? It depends on how you look at it.

In many ways, additive manufacturing is significantly more sustainable, and more reasonable for the environment and the earth, than traditional manufacturing methods. Let us count the ways.

Reduce

3D printing reduces waste

Additive manufacturing dramatically reduces the production of scrap waste — sometimes by as much as 90 percent compared to conventional manufacturing. Additive manufacturing works in the inverse from traditional methods: rather than taking a massive piece of material and chiseling away, much like a sculptor, to reveal the form of the item in production, additive manufacturing builds an item, layer by delicate layer, with the precision of a surgeon or an artful potter. And when it comes to multi-material 3D printing, like 3D printed electronics, part counts are reduced while electrical and mechanical functionality is combined, creating a more streamlined, efficient and sustainable production process.

3D printing reduces emissions

A groundbreaking 2014 study offered confirmation to the mantra that I and many of my colleagues in the additive manufacturing industry have been repeating for more than a decade: 3D printing will help slash CO2 emissions in the future — projected in this study to be as much as 5 percent by 2025. There are multiple reasons for this. Not only is the manufacturing process itself more efficient in 3D printing but by its very nature, additive manufacturing eliminates the need for extensive transport, storage and travel required by traditional production. 

In 2017, Siemens produced the first 3D printed metal replacement parts for an industrial steam turbine, slashing the lead time of their production by 40 percent. The future, it seems more and more evident, will involve a blending of additive and traditional manufacturing with powerful results.

You don’t need trucks to drive across the highway for days on end to ship specific pieces and parts; you can produce them yourself right on site. You don’t need to order and haul production equipment from one factory to the next; with 3D printing, complexity is free, and it’s also eminently mobile. Plans for even the most complex printing process can be shared digitally, allowing any factory with a 3D printer to become an instant production hub, no transport, trucking or carbon-fuelled trekking required.

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More on 3D printing and sustainability: 

Reuse

3D printing reuses plastics

3D printing is an additive process, so how can it be that there are waste products that need to be reused? Well, it all comes down to human error - many prints have been made with no use or simply can’t be used. But rather than needing to throw them in the bin, 3D printing offers the opportunity to reuse them. You simply need to separate the different materials (sorting ABS with ABS and PLA with PLA), harness a filament extruder to shred the prints and extrude the filament, respell and then reuse. Some of the new products available from reusing old plastic scraps are extraordinary, like the OWA filament range. It’s an old school method that’s as modern and eco-friendly as they come.

Recycle

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and that adage is immensely true in the additive manufacturing world. A number of 3D printers, including the ProtoCycler and the Filabot Reclaimer, will break down single use plastics like water bottles and transform them into the raw materials that additive manufacturing carefully builds its prints from.

But despite the fact that additive manufacturing is checking off all three R’s of sustainability, there is still work to be done. Just because the field is progressing does not mean we have grounds for complacency. Here are the red flags we need to continue to be aware of:

  • A study from Yale University suggests that the rapid and readily available technology provided by 3D printing can lead to an increase in the number of disposable consumer products, creating throwaway items that clog landfills. To counter this, we need to print items and share printing technology with purpose and care, committing ourselves not to fast plastics but to a deeper shared core value of disrupting traditional production methods and filling gaps in the supply chain with innovation and determination when possible.
  • Additive manufacturing does produce waste. Yes, those scraps can sometimes be recycled. Even though additive manufacturing works from the ground up rather than the top down, temporary support structures required during production are not always able to be reprocessed back into raw materials that can later be printed. This creates byproducts and plastic waste, which are inherently unsustainable. To combat this, we should be focused on using PHA-based filaments, which are nontoxic and biodegradable when possible.

The bottom line is that when held up against traditional manufacturing methods, additive manufacturing is significantly greener and more environmentally friendly. It also holds more potential for the future, because its growth possibilities are boundless and its creativity is uncharted. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for progress — the ability to think green is, like 3D printed itself, an exponential thing.

Want to discuss? Join the conversation on the Additive Manufacturing Global Community Discord.