Researchers in Germany have created a method to transform plastic packaging waste into high-quality 3D printed products.
Single-use or throwaway plastic packaging is a major environmental hazard. This not only in terms of how it is produced – most are based on crude oil – but also what happens once they are disposed of, as most are not recycled.
In Germany alone, 5.6 million metric tons of plastic packaging winds up in household waste each year. Currently, less than a third of it can be recycled.
Working in partnership with Hochschule Bremen – City University of Applied Sciences (HSB), the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM) aims to recycle post-consumer plastic waste into filaments that can be used to make high-quality 3D-printed products.
However, to be used in this process the waste has to meet stringent requirements for purity, shape and size, said Dr Dirk Godlinski, a project manager in the Composite Technology working group at Fraunhofer...