It’s Earth Day! You know what that means: time to sit in front of an energy-sucking computer and write-up an article on an eco-friendly company! There is a growing number of companies that are turning consumer waste into prosumer gold and the latest is reShootz, which will turn your old CDs and DVDs into 3D printing filaments.
reShootz is a spin-off of Washington-based GreenDisk, a company that has been recycling electronic media for the past 22 years. Now, with reShootz, the company plans to convert that waste into 3D printing filament. David Beschen, founder of GreenDisk and one of reShootz’s principals, says of the new company, “We were pleased to see how important sustainable practices and products are to the 3D printing community. Producing high quality, premium grade filament from this special set of recycled plastics is a natural. If someone wants to produce a product they will want the option of producing one that will qualify as environmentally preferred.”
Typically working with polycarbonate (PC), polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), and ABS, the firm will be releasing three different lines of materials: Performance, Production, and Play. Beschen continues, “All of these materials were born out of electronic media but that does not mean they had to die there. These plastics come packed with special values that reShootz can put back to work. But the Makers will be the ones to tell us exactly how.”
Each line will offer different properties for a given market, with Performance taking advantage of unique material qualities from recycled goods, Production supplying recycled versions of the typical filaments commercially available, and Play offering fun, novelty filaments. Made from old CD and DVD plastic, the first product in reShootz Performance line is Vüz, which can be read by lasers! The Production line will begin with rePC, reABS, and rePP, as well as other plastics. Finally, the first filament in the Play line is Sparkle, a PC filament sparkling from the metal found in old discs.
Due to its recycling history, the company believes that it is capable of closely monitoring the quality of the filaments as they’re produced. And their knowledge of the materials allows them to better control the qualities listed above. reShootz principal Mickey Friedman elaborates, “Our recycled material come already loaded with special powers. You have to understand the history of the material and its unique characteristics to produce a quality product. Over the years, we’ve learned how to best take advantage of this particular set of recycled plastics, and thanks to the need for a tight audit trail, we know how they were made and where they came from.”
Though samples will be available ahead of time, reShootz plans to kick off its Vüz optical grade filament with a Kickstarter program this summer. A new company with a very bare website, but, given the possibilities of recycling shiny metal things for 3D printing are awesome. And who could say no to recycling? On Earth Day? Tell me! Who??
