Filament recycle

Hi there!
After quite a long time (due to university commitment and other stuff ) I managed to get good printing results and I'm currently running the printer morning and night
Maybe this is a recurrent question, but is there a way to recycle the wasted filament, that is produced after failures or due to skirts/brims?
Right: I mean at home.. In fact I've read something about big machines to do so (it's called Filabot, hope it's not a problem I'm writing the name "out loud") but they're so expensive that I think thery're used only at industrial level or thereabouts..

I'm using PLA so I'm interested in that right now, but I guess it would be useful for ABS too.

Any information about that or idea on how to try something?

The filabot is nice but there is also the filastruder and meany other pellet extrudes on the market. These are good when using commercial pellets are the particle size is controlled. When trying to recycle filament you need to get a consistent particle size or you will clog the extruder or have air gaps that will affect your prints. Also when using these you cant go 100% recycled filament, somewhere around 0% to 30% is all you can use, the rest has to be new pellets.

You can always check what your local council will recycle, most of the time the plastic needs to be stamped with what it is (That triangle with the number in it) but some places have companies that take any plastics to make furniture from

Also PLA is made from corn starch making it somewhat biodegradable so you can compost it at home.

So there are lots of ways to recycle your used fillament, all really depends on what you want and how eco freako you are

I've seen a nice idea where you can make trays and similar by softening mixed plastics in metal molds (oven trays) [youtu.be]

You end up with a crazy art piece at the end of it. Not recycling but better than landfill. It seems crazy that mixed plastics aren't easy to separate by grinding and then filtering by density.

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Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

Suspect that the impurities (colorants and modifiers and fillers) make sorting by density impossible.

My first thoughts were about reusing it to make new filaments, but these are good idea too!

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DjDemonD
I've seen a nice idea where you can make trays and similar by softening mixed plastics in metal molds (oven trays)

That's a neat idea, it just should be experimented more I guess.. Don't have an actual idea of what to do though

@scottybfg As I can see, the Filastruder is cheaper than the Filabot, so maybe one could get that better if he has the chance.. Don't know about other pellet extrudes yet, will check that out..

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scottybfg
Also when using these you cant go 100% recycled filament, somewhere around 0% to 30% is all you can use, the rest has to be new pellets.

So if I want to make a new filament (let's ignore the process for now) I will need to buy new pellets? Do you know why 100% isn't an option? I've seen videos of that, thought, so I'm asking out of curiosity..

Every time the plastic is reused the carbon chains gets shorter and shorter this makes the plastic weaker and weaker. Eventually you end up with something more mush like than plastic like. So you have to infuse it with fresh long carbon chain plastics.

Well, that's disappointing.. I hoped it could be done easily.. I don't even know if and where to get new pellets, also I wonder how it costs.. Don't know, maybe I'll search more about that!
If I find a way to get pellets that is convenient, I'll bring back this idea somehow, maybe..
I guess for now I'll just stick to the local recycling program..

That's a shame though.. Well, anyway, thanks!