Sustainability in 3D Printing: Beyond the Marketing Myths of Big PLA
Sustainability is at the core of everything we do at The 3D Shop. While 3D printing is often seen as a revolutionary and environmentally friendly technology, the materials we use—and how we use them—play a significant role in determining its true impact. One of the most misunderstood materials in 3D printing is PLA (polylactic acid), often touted as biodegradable and sustainable. But the reality is far more complicated.
The Truth About PLA and "Biodegradability"
PLA is one of the most widely used materials in 3D printing, celebrated for its origins in renewable resources like cornstarch or sugarcane. However, it’s crucial to address the myth of PLA’s biodegradability.
PLA is technically biodegradable, but only under highly specific conditions, such as those found in industrial composting facilities. These facilities provide the precise combination of heat, moisture, and microbial activity necessary to break down PLA. Unfortunately, these conditions are rarely met in real-world settings like landfills or even home composting setups.
This means that PLA, when discarded improperly, often lingers in the environment just like traditional plastics. There is no evidence that shows PLA being biodegradable in soil, home compost or landfill environment.
PLA’s Sustainability Myth: Calling PLA biodegradable is like calling pizza a vegetable: the research has been paid for in order for it to be technically true enough to use it for marketing purposes. As you’ll read in this post, the reality is more nuanced and often misleading.
Our Commitment to Sustainable Materials
At The 3D Shop, we prioritize materials that retain their structural integrity through multiple manufacturing cycles. These “infinitely recyclable” plastics allow us to extend their lifecycle as much as possible, keeping them out of landfills and reducing overall waste.
The Case Against Using PLA:
Performance Degrades with Reuse: Unlike other plastics, PLA becomes less durable with each manufacturing cycle.
Limited Recycling Options: due to it’s recent rise in use and for the reason mentioned above, PLA recycling has not been researched enough - but with it’s abundance in additive manufacturing, it is an undertaking we are challenging ourselves with.
Other attempts: Since PLA is primarily used in 3D printing, the 3D printing culture (including us at one point) has been obsessed with turning it back into the shape of filament so it can be 3D printed again. The issue with this is that because both turning PLA back into filament and then printing with it again puts it through 2 additional heating cycles which makes the material much weaker and more useless and simply isn’t practical in our opinion. The massive undertaking that this idea creates is expensive and energy consuming, while also having an incredibly inefficient throughput. This means that the costs associated with this particular process get passed onto the consumer - essentially asking them to pay double for an inferior product.
What We Prefer to Use Instead:
Durable, Recyclable Plastics: Materials like PETG, and Nylon, which maintain their quality through multiple heat cycles.
By focusing on materials that are designed for longevity, we ensure that the plastics we use can serve not just one purpose, but many. This aligns with our mission to create high-quality, sustainable products that last.
A Purposeful Approach to PLA
While we avoid PLA whenever possible, there are times when its properties make it the right choice for a specific application. In these cases, we take a purposeful approach to ensure its use is meaningful:
One Solid Lifecycle: We use PLA for applications where its strengths—like ease of printing and availability of color—shine.
Maximizing Reuse: Once its lifecycle ends, we aim to recycle PLA into products that maintain high quality and durability for as long as possible.
This approach ensures that even when PLA is used, its environmental footprint is minimized.
The biggest drawback of our approach is that using molds is less adaptable than having filament that can be 3D printed with because a new mold needs to be created for each product that we want to recycle the PLA with. While we have projects and products that are currently underway using the waste we produce in the shop, as we continue to grow in our collection efforts, we might start to have a bit more supply than the current demand for these projects. That is where you come in - if you have a product or design in mind for something that can be mass produced and could benefit from being marketed as 100% recycled, we need to talk!
Our Closed-Loop Manufacturing Philosophy
Sustainability in 3D printing goes beyond the materials themselves—it’s about how we handle them throughout their lifecycle. At The 3D Shop, we’ve implemented a closed-loop manufacturing process that minimizes waste and maximizes reuse.
How It Works:
Print Failures and Prototypes: Any failed prints, old prototypes, or scrap materials are collected.
Shredding and Molding: These materials are shredded into raw feedstock for injection molding.
Recycling into New Products: The recycled materials are used to create new, high-quality parts, keeping waste out of landfills.
This process allows us to be a zero-waste facility while offering clients cost-effective, sustainable solutions. Using injection molding as our first recycle process for PLA is far more energy and time efficient, while also having a much higher throughput of material, further solving the problem.
Why Sustainability Matters
The world produces millions of tons of plastic waste every year, much of which ends up in oceans and landfills. As a 3D printing company, we have a responsibility to address this challenge by rethinking how we use materials and designing processes that minimize waste.
By focusing on sustainable materials and closed-loop manufacturing, we:
Reduce waste and environmental impact.
Offer clients eco-friendly production options.
Set a new standard for sustainability in the 3D printing industry.
Join Us in Making 3D Printing Truly Sustainable
While we work with our own scrap materials and the scrap of local schools, hobbyists and businesses, we want to start expanding our collection efforts. If you would like to sign up to send us your scrap materials, please join our mailing list and fill out the form on this page.
Sustainability in 3D printing isn’t about following trends—it’s about making intentional choices that prioritize the long-term health of our planet. At The 3D Shop, we’re committed to creating high-quality, sustainable products that don’t just meet your needs but also reflect our shared responsibility to protect the environment.
Interested in sustainable 3D printing solutions? Contact us today to learn how we can help bring your ideas to life—without compromising the planet.
