reTHink was created in 2015 as a nonprofit organisation with the goal of creating a greener Wabash Valley in the US 🇺🇸
They work with 3D printing waste, creating tiles, coasters, clock faces, shelving brackets, and soap dishes. They also started experimenting with making larger pieces, like round table tops up to 60 cm wide.
reTHink collects 3D printing waste from individuals and a local university, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The campus generates about 5 0 kg of PLA waste every year.
♻️The team checks the collected waste for contaminants, then sort by color and shred it. For melting and reforming shredded PLA they use mainly metal and high temperature silicone open molds in an oven with no compression. One of the interesting characteristics of PLA is how runny it gets when you heat it to about 185C. Its viscosity is much lower than polyethylene and polypropylene, so the PLA will flow to fill the mold and flatten out on its own. Once the part has cooled and been removed from the mold, the edges of the part need to be cleaned up using a sander or router. They also press PLA shred into sheets using our sheet press.
The edges of PLA parts can be surprisingly sharp edges when they come out of the mold (before those edges are sanded and chamfered). reTHink team recommends to wear gloves while handling freshly made parts ⚠️
Rebecca Bercich, President of
@precious_plastic_rethink shared with us some of the reTHink’s future plans towards 3D printing waste. “As we have hundreds of kilograms of PLA waste right now, we’re looking for ways to reliably reuse large quantities and make products that will last a long time. We plan to try using PLA in our extruder to make plant pots. We also want to try removing moisture from the plastic before melting to see if this noticeably reduces air pockets” 🧑🔬
Learn how to join our makers-recyclers movement from the blog post linked in bio and follow
@josefprusa and
@realpreciousplastic for more about 3D printing waste recycling⬆