World Environmental Day: Can 3D printing help?
When we think about helping the environment, how can 3D printing help?
Well, getting things from A to B can be a costly process in both financial and environmental terms and that’s where 3D printing and local manufacturing come in. It makes sense that some things are made far afield, but it also makes sense that some things are made geographically closer to the end user. 3D printing comes in many forms and can be used to make incredible things but it’s also a logistics solution.
If you can make a product closer to the end-user then it’s a win all around because there’s a financial gain for the end user and you cut out ‘unnecessary journeys’ as Teresa Mannion said. Unnecessary journeys that add carbon to the atmosphere and take us that bit further from our goal. All joking aside, the kind of weather Teresa encountered is going to become more common in parts of the world as the amount of carbon in the atmosphere increases. Decentralising, or in other words, localising manufacturing can have a positive impact and really be a key part of developing a circular economy.
From A to B
Sometimes it can be unavoidable that there is a long way from the point of manufacture to the end user, but companies are actively reducing logistics chains with 3D printing.
Remember that phrase, ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ ? Well, the most important bit of that for the circular economy is ‘reuse’, which is probably the most forgotten part of the phrase. The circular economy is about reusing materials that have already entered the economy. This is mainly because the recycling process is tricky with lots of different materials mixed together. If you take a water bottle as an example, the label, ink and glue have to be removed from the plastic before it can be effectively recycled without contamination, which is often impossible. My co-founder, Irene Villafane, investigated this quite a bit during college. Her research showed that the circular economy is particularly important for plastics because they’re so robust. Many 3D printing materials are recyclable and can be re-ground into raw material again. Adding local manufacturing and the circular economy together is an ideal system for reducing waste.
The circular economy
Things that have already entered the economy get reused or recycled
3D printing can also have direct environmental impacts, particularly in times of emergency or in developing regions. We’ve talked about how 3D printing something locally could reduce cargo on ships and be a logistics solution, but what about the actual 3D prints themselves, could they be things that helps the environment? Yes, when creative minds get hold of new tools, innovation happens. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this particular aspect of 3D printing and I even went as far as to create a 3D printing process specifically for developing regions. There are so many examples of creative people applying 3D printing to environmental applications that it’s hard to pick just one for a blog post but check this out:
A flexible, 3D printed solar cell, made by VICOSC
This consortium of universities and companies have 3D printed solar cells directly. This is a commendable but extreme example, because the world around us is made up of hardware. If you’re in a geographical location that doesn’t have good logistics for supplying basic hardware components, then something as simple as a 3D-printed pipe fitting could save you a lot of headaches.
This image from 3DPrintingIndustry.com shows how creative you can get with plumbing when you’re 3D printing
The pioneers of the 3D printing industry have laid the groundwork and now it’s about application. Oddly, the final frontier for 3D printing won’t be rocket parts or bio printing, it will be the everyday, the safety-critical and the unnoticed. The commonality of these kinds of parts is what will make 3D printing them on demand an ecological logistics solution.