Resources, Conservation & Recycling 128 (2018) 48–58

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Resources, Conservation & Recycling

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec

Full length article

Tightening the loop on the circular economy: Coupled distributed recycling MARK
and manufacturing with recyclebot and RepRap 3-D printing
⁎
Shan Zhonga, Joshua M. Pearcea,b,c,
a
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, USA
b
Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, School of Electrical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
c
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A promising method of enhancing the circular economy is distributed plastic recycling. In this study plastic
Circular economy waste is upcycled into 3-D printing filament with a recyclebot, which is an open source waste plastic extruder.
Distributed recycling The recyclebot is combined with an open source self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printer, to enable
Distributed manufacturing post-consumer ABS plastic filament from computer waste to be further upcycled into valuable consumer pro-
Energy conservation
ducts pre-designed in the digital commons. The total electrical energy consumption for the combined process is
Polymer recycling
monitored and an economic evaluation is completed. The coupled distributed recycling and manufacturing
Sustainable development
method for complex products reduces embodied energy by half, while reducing the cost of consumer products to
pennies. This economic benefit provides an incentive for consumers to both home recycle and home manu-
facture, which tightens the loop on the circular economy by eliminating waste associated from transportation
and retail. It is clear from the results that waste plastic can be significantly upcycled at the individual level using
this commons-based approach. This tightening of the loop of the circular economy benefits the environment and
sustainability as well as the economic stability of consumers/prosumers.

1. Introduction issues, and this linear model of resource consumption that follows a
“take-make-dispose” pattern has increasingly notable economic limits.
Over the last 50 years plastics have been used increasingly in a large High demand for resources leads to higher resource prices and supply
range of products due to their versatility, low cost and durability (Gu disruptions, which exposes companies that follow the linear system to
and Ozbakkaloglu, 2016; Passamonti and Sedran, 2012). The global risks during heightened competition (MacArthur, 2013). To reduce risk,
plastic production was 322 million tons in 2015, is growing 3.86% per the concept of circular economy was first proposed by a Chinese scholar
annum, and is expected to increase to 850 million tons per year by 2050 in 1998 with the aim to mitigate the contradiction between rapid
(Shen et al., 2009; Plastics Europe, 2016). This aggressive plastic pro- economic growth and the shortage of raw materials and energy (Zhu,
duction growth aggravates the pressure for waste plastic disposal and 1998). This fundamentally new model of circular economy is required
generates many well-established environmental issues. Landfill, in- to separate economic growth from resource consumption growth
cineration and recycling are the three main methods to treat post- (Preston, 2012). A circular economy uses material symbiosis between
consumer plastics according to the principle of waste hierarchy in in- different companies and production processes (Jacobsen 2006). The
creasing order of environmental responsibility (Gertsakis and Lewis, core of the circular economy is the circular flow of materials and the use
2003; Webb et al., 2012). Incineration of plastic has the capability for of resources and energy through multiple phases (Yuan et al., 2006).
energy recovery in the form of heat (Sinha et al., 2010), but large The circular economy is beneficial to society and economy as a whole
quantities of harmful compounds and greenhouse gases are emitted into by reducing the use of the natural environment as a sink for waste and
the atmosphere during incineration (Zhang et al., 2004; Astrup et al., reducing the use of virgin materials for economic activities (Andersen,
2009). Plastics usually need more than 20 years to degrade in landfill 2007).
conditions (Tansel and Yildiz, 2011) and plastic debris in landfill is also Recycling, therefore, is the established best solution to treat post-
a source of secondary environmental pollutants (Zhang et al., 2004). consumer plastics following the goals of a circular economy (Bicket
Incineration and landfill methods generate severe environmental et al., 2014). However, traditional recycling can have a significant

⁎
Corresponding author at: 601 M & M Building, 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931-1295, USA.
E-mail address: [email protected] (J.M. Pearce).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.023
Received 7 July 2017; Received in revised form 22 September 2017; Accepted 25 September 2017
0921-3449/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
S. Zhong, J.M. Pearce Resources, Conservation & Recycling 128 (2018) 48–58

environmental impact as it demands the collection and transportation expanded its popularity and enabled wide applicability for distributed
of relatively low-density waste plastics to collection centers and re- manufacturing throughout the world for a wide range of products
clamation facilities for separation and reconstruction (Barton et al., (Pearce et al., 2010; Mota, 2011; Richardson and Haylock, 2012;
1996). In centralized recycling systems the transportation usually Gwamuri et al., 2016; Kietzmann et al., 2015; Pearce, 2015; Wittbrodt
consumes large quantities of energy with the concomitant emissions et al., 2015; Wittbrodt and Pearce, 2015; Petersen and Pearce, 2017).
and environmental detriment (Craighill and Powell, 1996) and needs In order to analyze the impact of combining these two trends, this
considerable labor to classify those post-consumer plastics (Themelis paper for the first time combines the distributed recycling method using
et al., 2011). In developing regions this labor is provided by waste a vertical recyclebot to make filament with distributed manufacturing
pickers, which collect post-consumer plastic in landfills far below using a delta RepRap to print useful products from post-consumer
poverty-level wages (Hayami et al., 2006; Wilson et al., 2006; Schenck waste. Specifically, this study analyzes the recycling of acrylonitrile
and Blaauw, 2011; Feeley et al., 2014). butadiene styrene (ABS) from computer waste (approximately 20 wt
Compared to the traditional recycling, distributed recycling (where percent of end of life electronics (MOEA, 2001)), for the first time in
consumers directly recycle their own waste) has the potential to reduce such systems, into useful and valuable products. The total electrical
energy consumption because it can save the energy for transportation energy consumption for the combined process is monitored and an
needed in conventional recycling (Arena et al., 2003; Ross and Evans, economic evaluation is completed. These results are compared to the
2003). A new promising method of such distributed plastic recycling is combination of traditional recycling and traditional manufacturing, and
to upcycle plastic waste into 3-D printing filament with a recyclebot, discussed in the context of improving the circular economy, energy
which is an open source waste plastic extruder (Baechler et al., 2013). conservation, greenhouse gas emission mitigation and economic ben-
Waste plastic shards, powder or pellets are fed into the recyclebot efit.
through a hopper, and transported to the heating pipe by an auger
(replacing the custom machined screw in traditional extrusion systems), 2. Devices and methods
which is driven by a motor. The plastic is compressed and melted in this
heating pipe and can be extruded through the nozzle to form filament 2.1. Material and energy measurements
for fused filament fabrication (FFF)-based 3-D printing. In general,
plastic recycled for 3-D printing filament is of the same type, and the This project presents a distributed method to completely recycle
process is simplified if recycling codes are granular enough to identify thermoplastic into valuable consumer goods at the consumers’ re-
different kinds of plastics (Hunt et al., 2015). After classifying the sidence. Post-consumer ABS, (eC8H8·C4H6·C3H3Ne)-n, which is a ver-
plastic, it is cleaned and shredded into small pieces to improve the fi- satile plastic used for a variety of durable goods, was chosen to test this
lament’s quality by maintaining the consistency of the feed rate. The method. ABS is good choice of plastic for recycling into filament be-
recyclebot makes filament from post-consumer plastics instead of raw cause its glass transition temperature is not changed and the decom-
materials, which can decrease by a factor of ten the embodied energy of position temperature increases slightly by 3 °C after recycling due to the
the filament from the mining, processing of natural resources and decreasing of volatile monomers (Kim and Kang, 1995). The increased
synthesizing compared to traditional manufacturing method (Kreiger decomposition temperature provides a broader temperature range
et al., 2013; Kreiger et al., 2014). In addition, the recyclebot provides during the recycling process and after recycling, although its impact
the potential to recycle plastics at any location so that consumers in resistance decreases slightly, the tensile strength, elongation and
their own homes can save money by offsetting purchased filament as hardness of ABS are constant (Kim and Kang, 1995).
well as reducing embodied energy for transportation (Kreiger et al., Further all open source hardware-based equipment (Ackerman,
2013; Kreiger et al., 2014). In addition, professional waste pickers can 2008; Gibb, 2014) was used in all steps of the processing including an
sell filament for a substantial high value per kg than they earn for only open source granulator (Appropedia, 2016a), a vertical recyclebot
sorted plastic to increase their personal income (Feeley et al., 2014). ac4.0 (Appropedia, 2016b), and delta-style RepRap (Appropedia,
If the recyclebot is combined with an open source self-replicating 2016c). Post-consumer ABS stabilizing feet (92.36 g/foot) for a 5G
rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printer (Sells et al., 2010; Jones et al., tower or smart UPS as seen in Fig. 1 was shredded by the granulator.
2011), then the post-consumer plastics can be turned into useful and The crushed plastic was used to make 3-D printing filament and then
more valuable products (Wittbrodt et al., 2013; Redlich and Moritz, three case study consumer goods were manufactured including a
2016). Compared to the traditional plastic manufacturing methods, like camera tripod, an SD card holder and a camera hood. In order to
plastic injection molding, additive manufacturing with a 3-D printer has compare this method with the combination of traditional recycling and
two advantages. First, a 3-D printer allows for accurate fabrication and traditional manufacture in energy consumption, the electricity con-
scale models as it can directly produce complex parts by building a sumed at each step was recorded by a multimeter (+/− 0.01 kWh). To
component in layers from 3-D digital designs with essentially no ma- account for mass loss at each processing step, at each stage of proces-
terial waste (Crane et al., 2011; Gebhardt et al., 2010). Secondly, the 3- sing the plastic was massed with a digital balance (+/− 0.01 g).
D printer can control the fill density of a product. By reducing the fill
density of parts to the minimum necessary for mechanical functionality 2.2. Small-scale shredding of post-consumer plastic waste
(Baich et al., 2015), 3-D print-based manufacture can save materials,
reduce energy consumption and decrease greenhouse gas emissions all Mechanical cleaning of the post-consumer plastic waste is necessary
which contribute to sustainability (Kreiger and Pearce, 2013a; Kreiger before the shredding step. Impurities not only degrade overall filament
and Pearce, 2013b; Ford and Despeisse, 2016). In addition, as 3-D consistency, but also increase the clogging frequency in the nozzle of
printing can be accomplished locally (even in the homes of consumers)
the transportation related energy can also be reduced (Birtchnell et al.,
2013). There is thus considerable research that has shown distributed
manufacturing with 3-D printing can benefit the circular economy
(Charter and Keiller, 2014; Mohr and Khan, 2015; Van Wijk and van
Wijk, 2015; Stahel, 2016; Despeisse et al., 2017). The open source
nature of the RepRap 3-D printer has resulted in rapid technical evo-
lution and reductions in the cost; currently a basic polymer printing
RepRap 3-D printer can be constructed for less than $500 in parts
Fig. 1. Post-consumer stabilizing foot made of ABS.
(Anzalone et al., 2015). Reducing the cost of 3-D printers has greatly

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S. Zhong, J.M. Pearce Resources, Conservation & Recycling 128 (2018) 48–58

Fig. 2. Model of open source granulator v1 cutting chamber assembly.

the 3-D printer. Next, an open source plastic granulator/shredder

(Gorechi, et al., 2016) was used to shred the plastic. To be more ac-
cessible to small and medium sized enterprises it was designed to op-
erate on single phase power instead of three phase power, which is
common for commercial industrial tools. The hopper of the granulator
is designed to maintain mechanical integrity of the granulator so the
entrance is 200 cm2 large to limit the size of the incoming plastic Fig. 3. Comparison of filament quality from moist pellets and dried pellets using identical
pieces. If the plastic particle is larger it will need to be reduced in size process conditions in the recyclebot.
manually before depositing in the hopper to be crushed in the granu-
lator chamber by spinning fly knives. Three fly knives rotate about an only plastic inputs into the tube is provided by the auger. It is better to
axis and striking a bed knife that is stationary on the outside of the path set high rotation speed to get higher extrusion rates and avoid plastic
the rotary blades follow (Fig. 2). The shaft and fly knife mounts are staying in the heating tube for long time, which is important for fila-
made out of A36 steel. The fly knives and bed knife are made out of tool ment quality. Long exposure times to high temperatures usually leads to
steel, and the sieve is made out of stainless steel. As the plastic is the degradation of polybutadiene chain in ABS and affects the me-
granulated, it is sorted by a sieve, which has ⅛ inch (3.2 mm) holes in it chanical properties negatively, such as the decreasing of compact re-
because that is the acceptable granulated size for the recyclebot. The sistance (Tiganis et al., 2002; Blom et al., 2006). The auger rotation
particle size distribution was determined by imaging and the use of the speed was set as 15 revolutions per min.
open source imageJ software (ImageJ, 2016). Filament diameter depends on the nozzle size and the tension on the
ImageJ was also used to get the areas and perimeters of these fila- filament after extruding. When the filament comes out through the
ment cross sections. Based on these areas (a), and perimeters (p), the nozzle, it swells slightly. Then as the tension increases, the filament
circularity, C, of filament can be calculated by: diameter decreases. The recyclebot ac4.0 has a vertical geometry, as
shown in Fig. 4, so it uses gravity directly to provide tension on the
a
C = 4π ⎛⎜ 2 ⎞⎟ filament after extruding. This is unlike previous studies on recyclebots
⎝p ⎠ (1) and most commercial systems that use a horizontal geometry. At the
The circularity is a number with the range of 0–1. C = 1 indicates a beginning of extruding, the filament descended gradually and then was
perfect circle. pulled through the light sensor, diameter measurement, length mea-
After shredding, the crushed plastic needs to be dried to maintain surement, guide tube and then wound on the spooler. In this collecting
consistent quality by low temperature heating, or exposure to low-hu- system, there are two modes to collect the filament, the auto mode and
midity environment by ambient, vacuum or desiccant. If this is not the manual mode. In auto mode, when the filament descends and passes
completed the moisture on the plastic vaporizes and form bubbles that through the light sensor, the spooler begins to rotate and collect fila-
roughen the filament surface. This can be seen in Fig. 3, where the ment. If the rotation speed of spooler is too fast, the filament rises up
filament on the left was produce from moist pellets and the right one and passed through the light sensor again, then the spooler slows and
was from dried pellets. It is obvious that filament from dried particles stops rotating. On manual mode, the rotation speed of spooler is ad-
has better quality. justed manually by rotating a knob that controls the spooler speed on a
panel. The manual mode is always used when the extrusion rate is not
2.3. Extruding filament stable, such as the initial state of extrusion. To get a uniform size of
filament, the filament should descend the same distance to keep the
The full designs, build plans and operation of the recyclebot are tension on the filament constant. To get the filament with 1.75 mm
maintained and updated at (Appropedia, 2016b). The two primary diameter, which was needed by the MOST delta-style RepRap, the
control parameters of the recyclebot are heating tube and extruder nozzle size is 1.2 mm and the filament loop descended 30 cm.
temperature and auger rotation speed. The temperature of heating tube During heating and extruding process, the electricity and time
should be above the glass transition temperature of the polymer being consumed were collected along with the mass to calculate the extrusion
processed so that the polymer molecules have mobility, and below the rate and energy consumption. The filament diameter distribution was
decomposition temperature to avoid breaking of molecule structures. determined by imaging and the use of the open source imageJ software
The glass transition temperature and decomposition temperature of (ImageJ, 2016).
ABS are 115.5 °C and 300–450 °C respectively (Li and Shimizu, 2009;
Wang et al., 2003), and the glass transition temperature of ABS is not 2.4. Printing case study consumer goods
changed after recycling while the decomposition temperature of ABS
just increases slight by 3 °C (Kim and Kang, 1995). While in this ap- The Reprap used in this project is the Athena 3-D printer which
propriate range, the molecule mobility would increase as temperature derived from the MOST delta RepRap 3-D printer. The Athena is easier
increases. The heating tube temperature was set as 180 °C here. The to assemble and maintain and has better wire management and flex-
auger rotation speed determines the extrusion rate (kg/h) because the ibility, which increases its applicability for households. The basic

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Fig. 5. The post-consumer ABS plastic and crushed ABS pellets.

3. Results

3.1. Shredding post-consumer waste plastic

The open source granulator was successfully used to shred post-

consumer ABS as shown in Fig. 5. The energy consumption for shred-
ding 1 kg of ABS is 0.138 kWh and shredding rate is 4.358 kg/h. The
shredded plastic was put into a vacuum chamber for half an hour. The
vacuum chamber used in this study can contain about 1 kg of crushed
plastic and it consumed 0.19 kWh for 33 min vacuuming. The va-
cuuming rate is 1.818 kg/h.
Fig. 4. Recyclebot ac4.0. The particle size distribution is important as it relates directly to the
ease with which a recyclebot can produce uniform filament. The
RepRap printer was modified with a heated bed to ensure adhesion of average particle size of the ABS pieces is 2.72 mm, which is based on
ABS to the glass substrate (although other methods using compatible Fig. 6 and ImageJ analysis. Fig. 6 is a picture of a handful of ABS
polymer print surfaces that enable bed adhesion without heating can be particles, which was ran through ImageJ to get each particle’s top side
used). It should be noted, however, that a heated printing surface is area assuming each particle is a sphere. It should be noted that using
preferred, as ABS will contract when cooled leading to warped parts. this method to estimate particle size always gets a larger number
During large prints with ABS without a printed bed warping can cause compared to the real size if the pellets are not perfect spheres. Fig. 7 is
delamination in between printed layers. ABS printing temperature is in the particle size distribution of that handful of pellets. It is found that
the range of 200–240 °C. If the temperature is too high, the extruder most particles are within the particle size range of 0.08–1.06 mm. In
would leak between the separate parts and cause stringing. If the order to get the plastic quantity distribution with respect to the particle
temperature is too low, the plastic cannot stick well to the previous size, the top side area was used to compare the relative mass of each
layer causing weak interlayer adhesion and under extrusion, which pellet. Fig. 8 is the total top side areas of different particle size ranges. It
results in the printed part having reduced mechanical strength.

2.5. Case study objects

The recycled ABS filament was used to test printing a camera tripod,
SD card holder and camera hood. The camera bubble tripod consists of
a tripod top, a tripod base, nine leg components and three tripod feet
(Wilson, 2015). The SD card holder consists of a top side, bottom side,
SD card container, micro-SD card container, card reader container and
two multi-card containers (Drano, 2015). The camera hood fits a Canon
18-135 STM lens (Andrade, 2012).
The printing temperature was set as 220 °C except for the tripod
feet. When the tripod feet were being printed, the printing temperature
was set as 220 °C for first layer and 200 °C for other layers. The tripod
foot has a relatively large sphere and one side always warped during
printing, so decreasing the printing temperature was used to eliminate
the issue. The heated bed temperature was set as 110 °C for all com-
ponents. The printing speed was 60 mm/s, fan power at 80% and fill
Fig. 6. A handful of crushed post-consumer ABS.
density was 100%.

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S. Zhong, J.M. Pearce Resources, Conservation & Recycling 128 (2018) 48–58

Fig. 9. The filament produced by recyclebot from crushed post-consumer ABS particles.
Fig. 7. Particle size distribution of a handful of ABS pellets.

Fig. 8. Total top side areas of different particle size ranges.

is obvious that though these tiny pellets are the greatest in number their Fig. 10. The cross sections from different parts of ABS recycled filament.
contribution to the total mass is negligible. Most of post-consumer ABS
were shredded into the pieces with the particle size of 2.04–5.96 mm,
and the amount of the particles within this range is more than half of
the total amount. However, there are a few particles that are larger than
8 mm and need to be removed manually or by a sieve to make sure
these crushed ABS are small enough to be used as feedstock for the
recyclebot.
In addition, not all of the plastic fed into the granulator can be
shredded and collected in the collector. There is always some plastic
leftover between the chamber bottom and blades which cannot be
shredded and get through the sieve, which generates the difference
between the amount of post-consumer plastic and the amount of plastic
particles. However, as more plastic waste is shredded, the influence of
the difference is reduced.
Fig. 11. The diameter distribution of recycled ABS filament.
3.2. Extruding filament
average circularity is 0.87. This means the filament produced by re-
The open source vertical recyclebot ac4.0 was used to make fila- cyclebot from crushed post-consumer ABS has good roundness and
ment from crushed ABS. Before the extrusion process, it took 7 min and could be 3-D printed.
0.005 kWh for the heating tube to reach operation temperature. When Fig. 11 shows the distribution of filament diameters. The average
the temperature rises up to the set point, the auger begins to rotate and diameter is 1.84 mm, which was calculated from cross section areas. It
filament is extruded. The initial 0.5 m of filament was discarded be- is clear that the tolerance of this filament is +0.1/−0.04 mm. The
cause of inconsistency as the entire hot zone reached the set point average diameter of commercial filament is 1.75 mm with tolerance of
temperature. The extrusion rate was 0.262 kg/h and energy consump- +/−0.05 mm. Compared to commercial filament, this recycled fila-
tion for extruding 1 kg of filament is 0.302 kWh. This results in a single ment is slightly larger. Although the recyclebot settings could be tuned
vertical recylebot capable of producing 6 kg of filament in a 24 h day or to more closely match commercial specifications, it is not necessary as
a 1 kg spool in less than 4 h. Fig. 9 is a picture of recycled filament from the filament was well within the tolerances of the RepRap used for 3-D
the crushed ABS material. Compared to extrusion, the energy con- printing.
sumption for warming up the recyclebot is negligible if large quantities
of filament is produced.
Fig. 10 shows the filament cross sections from different parts of the 3.3. Printing case study objects
spool. A knife was used to cut the filament perpendicular to its length in
order to examine cross sections. ImageJ was used with Eq. (1) to find The open source Athena RepRap was used to test print recycled ABS
that the circularity range of these cross sections is 0.81–0.89 and the filament. It took 8 min and 0.03 kWh for the heated bed and nozzle to

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Fig. 14. The camera hood printed a) with camera and b) with camera by the RepRap from
recycled ABS filament.

Table 1
Energy consumption, time consumption and filament consumption for 3-D printing a
camera tripod.

Item Energy Time Filament

consumption consumption consumption (g)
(kWh) (min)

Tripod top (x1) 0.10 28 4.67

Tripod (x1) 0.23 94 14.90
Leg component 0.90 324 42.11
(x9)
Tripod foot (x3) 0.30 120 27.08
Total 1.53 566 88.76

Fig. 12. The camera bubble tripod printed a) components and b) assembled by the consumption of printing a camera bubble tripod were shown in Table 1.
RepRap from recycled ABS filament. Including the heating process, printing a camera tripod needs 1.56 kWh
and 574 min (about 9.5 h). During the whole printing process the en-
ergy consumption for initial heating is also small compared to the en-
ergy consumption for printing itself.
The total weight of 3-D printed camera tripod is 88.76 g. The energy
and time consumption for each step are summarized in Table 2. Based
on the energy consumptions of 0.138 kWh/kg for shredding,
0.190 kWh/kg for vacuuming and 0.302 kWh/kg for filament ex-
truding, 88.76 g of plastic requires 0.012 kWh for shredding,
0.017 kWh for vacuuming and 0.027 kWh for extruding filament. Based
on the shredding rates of 4.358 kg/h, vacuuming rate of 1.818 kg/h and

Table 2
Energy consumption and time consumption for producing a camera tripod from waste
Fig. 13. The SD card holder printed by the RepRap from recycled ABS filament. plastic.

Process Energy consumption (kWh) Time consumption (h)

warm up. The components were printed one by one and the printed
camera tripod, SD card holder and camera hood are shown in Shredding 0.012 0.020
Figs. 12–14, respectively. Vacuuming 0.017 0.049
Extruding filament 0.027 0.339
Printing 1.560 9.567
3.3.1. Camera tripod Total 1.616 9.975
The energy consumption, time consumption and filament

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Table 3 Table 5
Energy consumption, time consumption and filament consumption for 3-D printing a SD Energy consumption and time consumption for producing a camera hood from waste
card holder. plastic.

Item Energy Time consumption Filament Process Energy consumption (kWh) Time consumption (h)
consumption (min) consumption (g)
(kWh) Shredding 0.002 0.004
Vacuuming 0.003 0.010
Top side 0.11 49 14.10 Extruding filament 0.005 0.066
Bottom side 0.12 52 14.20 Printing 0.210 1.330
SD card 0.07 33 7.99 Total 0.220 1.410
container
Micro-SD card 0.06 30 7.28
container 4. Discussion
Card reader 0.19 87 26.60
container
Multi-card 0.06 30 7.43 4.1. Energy savings
container
Total 0.61 281 77.60 This distributed recycling and production method with a recyclebot
and RepRap saves energy not only in recycling process, but also in
manufacturing process, which combine to improve the environmental
extrusion rate of 0.262 kg/h, it takes 0.020 h to shred 0.121 kg of
performance in a circular economy. The energy consumption for ABS
plastic, 0.049 h to vacuum and 0.339 h to extrude it. Therefore, to
recycling in this project is 0.63 kWh/kg which is the sum of energy used
produce a camera bubble tripod from post-consumer ABS, 9.975 h and
in shredding, vacuuming and extruding filament process. The tradi-
1.616 kWh were consumed in total.
tional plastic recycling method involves collecting and transporting
post-consumer plastics to a collection center for separation, and then to
3.3.2. SD card holder reclamation facility for reconstruction. In a reclamation center, sorted
The energy consumption, time consumption and filament con- plastic usually needs to be cleaned, dried, melted, extruded and then
sumption for 3-D printing a SD card holder are shown in Table 3. In- shredded into pellets for reuse (Barton et al., 1996). This process is
cluding the heating process, printing a SD card holder needs 0.64 kWh similar to the recycling process in this project, so it is assumed that their
and 289 min in total. energy consumptions are nearly identical. This assumption is grounded
The total weight of 3-D printed SD card holder is 77.6 g. Table 4 in more detailed studies investigating recycling a different post-con-
summarizes the energy and time consumption for each step. Based on sumer plastic (HDPE), which found such results (Kreiger and Pearce,
the energy consumptions of 0.138 kWh/kg for shredding, 0.190 kWh/ 2013a; Kreiger and Pearce, 2013b). But the traditional recycling
kg for vacuuming and 0.302 kWh/kg for filament extruding, 77.60 g of method still requires large quantities of extra energy for transportation
plastic requires 0.011 kWh for shredding, 0.015 kWh for vacuuming and sorting and compacting in the collection centers. The average en-
and 0.023 kWh for extruding filament. Based on the shredding rates of ergy consumption for transporting post-consumer plastics is
4.358 kg/h, vacuuming rate of 1.818 kg/h and extrusion rate of 0.089 kWh/kg, for sorting is 0.075 kWh/kg, for compacting is
0.262 kg/h, it takes 0.018 h to shred 77.60 g of plastic, 0.043 h to va- 0.025 kWh/kg (Arena et al., 2003), which means the traditional re-
cuum and 0.296 h to extrude it. Therefore, to produce a SD card holder cycling method consumes an extra 0.189 kWh/kg compared to the
from post-consumer ABS, 5.174 h and 0.689 kWh were consumed in distributed recycling method introduced in this project. Besides, the
total. energy consumption for transportation would increase as the distance
increases. Collecting waste plastics in remote rural areas usually re-
3.3.3. Camera hood quires much more energy (Kreiger and Pearce, 2013a; Kreiger and
To 3-D print the camera hood 0.18 kWh of electricity was consumed Pearce, 2013b).
over 72 min using 17.37 g of recycled ABS filament. Including the Fig. 15 summarizes the energy consumption for producing the three
heating process, printing a camera hood needs 0.21 kWh and 80 min in case study products: a camera tripod, SD card holder and camera hood
total (Table 5). by traditional and distributed methods. The camera tripod, SD card
The total weight of 3-D printed camera hood is 17.37 g. Based on holder and camera hood produced in the case study consumed
the energy consumptions of 0.138 kWh/kg for shredding, 0.190 kWh/ 1.616 kWh, 0.689 kWh, 0.220 kWh and their mass are 88.76 g, 77.60 g,
kg for vacuuming and 0.302 kWh/kg for filament extruding, 17.37 g of 17.37 g, respectively. The embodied energy of ABS is 36.667 kWh/kg
plastic requires 0.002 kWh for shredding, 0.003 kWh for vacuuming
and 0.005 kWh for extruding filament. Based on the shredding rates of
4.358 kg/h, vacuuming rate of 1.818 kg/h and extrusion rate of
0.262 kg/h, it takes 0.004 h to shred 17.37 g of plastic, 0.010 h to va-
cuum and 0.066 h to extrude it. Therefore, to produce a camera hood
from post-consumer ABS, 1.410 h and 0.220 kWh were consumed in
total.

Table 4
Energy consumption and time consumption for producing an SD card holder from waste
plastic ABS.

Process Energy consumption (kWh) Time consumption (h)

Shredding 0.011 0.018

Vacuuming 0.015 0.043
Extruding filament 0.023 0.296
Printing 0.640 4.817
Fig. 15. The energy consumption for producing a camera tripod, SD card holder and
Total 0.689 5.174
camera hood by traditional and distributed methods.

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S. Zhong, J.M. Pearce Resources, Conservation & Recycling 128 (2018) 48–58

which includes 13.500 kWh/kg feedstock energy (Wötzel et al., 1999; shipping costs the cost of the product can be reduced further. Again,
Hammond et al., 2008). Except for the feedstock energy, 23.167 kWh is these costs add no value to the product and only have a negative en-
needed to complete mining, processing natural resources, manu- vironmental impact.
facturing and delivery to get 1 kg of ABS product. Therefore, the tra- The low cost and high quality are always the most important stan-
ditional manufacture method needs to consume 2.056 kWh, 1.798 kWh dards for people to evaluate a product. The latter is a challenge as it is
and 0.402 kWh to produce a same camera tripod, SD card holder and known that with each recycling pass polymer mechanical properties
camera hood, respectively based on their mass. If the feedstock energy degrade (Sanchez et al., 2017), although the filament quality remains
is considered, extra raw material of 1.198 kWh, 1.048 kWh and acceptable for most consumer goods through five cycles (Sanchez et al.,
0.234 kWh are required to produce ABS products of 88.76 g, 77.60 g 2015). For the products investigated here as case studies the mechan-
and 17.37 g respectively. The percent of energy saved by the distributed ical strength loss is minimal and the materials are more than adequate
process depends on the complexity of the objects with the tripod being for these applications. In addition, if necessary a smoothing of the ABS
the most complex and the camera hood being the least complex. From can be accomplished with acetone to obtain commercial quality aes-
Fig. 15, it is clear that using traditional manufacturing method to thetics (Wittbrodt et al., 2013). There is no doubt that coupled recycling
produce an ABS product consumes more than double the energy com- and manufacturing methods with large economic benefit is able to
pared to coupled distributed recycling and manufacturing method. If encourage people to recycle more plastic and produce products by
the products of simple structures are produced, such as the case study themselves. There is already considerable evidence that this is hap-
products shown here, more energy can be conserved by this coupled pening at least for distributed manufacturing in some markets (Petersen
distributed method. et al., 2017). To see how substantial this can be and why this is oc-
As the energy consumption is less when prosumers (producing curring, consider the lens hood: When the 92.36 g stabilizing foot is
consumers) use distributed recycling and manufacturing methods, they either broken or not needed, it can be recycled by coupled distributed
can also reduce the greenhouse gas emissions to produce a product. The method and almost 5 camera lens hood can be produced from it, which
coupled distributed recycling and manufacturing method does not re- means the value of approximately US$50.00 is created from one sta-
quire post-consumer plastic transportation and product delivery, so it bilizing foot.
directly decreases carbon emissions from the combustion of transpor- In contrast, the post-consumer plastic bottle recycle rate in America
tation-related fuel. In addition, distributed recycling and manufacturing in 2013 is 30.9% (Plastic American-Chemistry, 2013), which results in
consumes less energy than the traditional recycling process and man- about two thirds of plastic bottles being disposed by incineration and
ufacturing process, so carbon emission decreases further from this landfill. These recycled bottles are pure materials such as PET and
conserved energy. This again improves the environmental performance HDPE and also be separated and recycled using the methods discussed
of the circular economy. According to the energy conservation and here for ABS e-waste. However, those plastics that are used in electronic
carbon emission mitigation, it is clear that this method has great benefit product, such as ABS, are always coupled to other materials so they
for environment and supports a growing body of evidence in this regard usually have relatively lower recycle rates. With the stimulation for a
(Kohtala, 2015). circular economy created by the economic benefit, the post-consumer
plastic recycle rate would potentially increase as the tools become more
4.2. Economics widely available for people to recycle more plastics in their homes or
communities.
Regardless of the environmental benefits of the circular economy as Finally, the cost of a recyclebot must be factored into the economics
a whole or of the distributed approach to recycling and/or manu- of the use of recycled filament. This cost is currently well under 1000
facturing discussed here, they are unlikely to be widely adopted by USD with several recyclebot-derivative kits available on the web for a
consumers without a significant financial incentive. Fortunately, as the few hundred USD. This cost can thus be justified with the creation of
results of this study show, there is such an incentive. The total energy approximately 5 kg of filament per 100USD of filament savings.
consumption for producing a camera bubble tripod, SD card holder and Depending upon the frequency of use of the 3-D printer the recyclebot
camera hood in this project is 1.616 kWh, 0.689 kWh and 0.220 kWh may thus be economically appropriate for individual homes.
respectively, so their cost can be estimated as 19 cents, 8 cents and 3 Particularly if coupled with the 3-D printer (which already has a well-
cents based on the average electricity price in U.S. which is US $0.12/ established rapid payback time and high return on investment (ROI)
kWh. This represents substantial savings for consumer products. For (Petersen and Pearce, 2017)) it is clear the combination would also
example, the lowest-cost equivalent on Amazon for the similar camera provide a high ROI. However, for low-usage homes it would be better
bubble tripod costs US$3.49 dollars (Amazon, 2016a) instead of 19 scaled in a community center (e.g. library, makerspace, fablab, or small
cents. Similarly, an equivalent camera lens hood costs US$9.99 dollars business) where many families (e.g. using only a few kg/year) could
(Amazon, 2016b) while the 3-D printed from recycled ABS waste costs benefit from it. Future work is necessary to gauge average usage rates
only 3 cents. Thus, one could make 333 camera lens hoods for the same among 3-D printer operators making products for household use. In
economic cost as purchasing a single one by conventional distributors. addition, in the future, more advanced polymers and composites (Tian
Although the commons-based SD card holder design here is new and et al., 2017) can be explored in this low-cost open source distributed
there is no identical commercial one, a similar one costs US$5.98 upcycling case for a circular economy.
(Amazon, 2016c) instead of 8 cents to make at home from waste platic.
The economic benefit of distributed recycling and manufacture 4.3. Implications of direct digital manufacturing on the circular economy
method is obvious and even greater than those found earlier for creative
commons designs coupled with commercial filament and 3-D printers These results take the digital manufacturing optimization (Agustí-
(Wittbrodt et al., 2013; Petersen and Pearce, 2017). This is for only Juan and Habert, 2017) and direct digital manufacturing (Chen et al.,
simple products. Products with complex structures are always even 2015) to the extreme case discussed by Kostakis et al. (2016). Kostakis
relatively more expensive because of the restrictions in traditional et al. focus is on the model of designing globally, but manufacturing
manufacture methods. However, the complex structure does not make locally and builds on the conjunction of the digital commons of
much difference in cost in the 3-D printing method, which is why for knowledge and design (e.g. the three commons-based designs used for
example sophisticated scientific equipment can be produced for 1% of case studies here) with desktop and bench-top manufacturing technol-
the cost of those tools made by traditional methods (Pearce, 2012; ogies (such as the open source 3-D printers used in this study). It is clear
Pearce, 2013). In addition, as using this method allows products to be from the results of the study reported here that in the short-to-medium
produced at home and do not need the transportation and associated term waste plastic from discarded e-waste can be significantly upcycled

55
S. Zhong, J.M. Pearce Resources, Conservation & Recycling 128 (2018) 48–58

using this commons-based approach for the benefit of the environment consumed and less greenhouse gas is emitted than would be otherwise
as well as the economic stability of consumers. This coupled distributed to meet the same consumer desire than used either in a traditional
recycling and manufacturing method helps to solve post-consumer circular economy paradigm or a standard centrally-manufactured
plastic disposal issues and raw material shortage issues as it uses re- paradigm. This study presented a distributed recycling and manu-
cycled plastic to produce products. This method closes the loop of facturing method with the coupling of an open source recyclebot and
plastic material flows, which not only assists the circular economy as a RepRap 3-D printer. Post-consumer ABS was recycled and then used as
whole, but also the sustainability at the household level. In addition, it material to produce three case study products. From the three case
improves upon the standard view of the circular economy occurring at studies, it is clear that using traditional manufacturing methods to
the industrial level with significant transport between stages of a pro- produce an ABS product consumes more than double the energy com-
ducts life cycle. In this case the transport loop is significantly tightened, pared to coupled distributed recycling and manufacturing method.
literally turning waste into products in the home of the consumer. Therefore, this couple distributed recycling and manufacturing method
Distributed manufacturing with 3-D printing also directly benefits fits well into the goal of circular economy and meets the requirement of
the goals of the circular economy. When the 3-D printed part is no sustainable development. Finally, the economic analysis presented here
longer useful, it can be shredded and used to make filament and printed indicates that the economic benefit to consumers can be used to en-
into new useful products. It is interesting to note that a broken stabilizer courage adoption of circular economic practices. By tightening the re-
foot (the raw material used for this study) could be recycled using this cycling and production loops the circular economy is supported by this
method into a new stabilizing foot. Each foot weighs less than 93 g (and method.
it could be printed with lower infill to weigh even less). In addition, the
shipping weight of a single foot is 1 lb (453 g), which is a factor of 4.87x Funding details
due presumably to the mass of the packaging to ship one (Amazon,
2016d). The stabilizing foot costs US$9.99 on E-bay (E-bay, 2016), This study was supported by Tech for Trade and by Fulbright
which again shows considerable economic savings using the coupled Finland.
distributed recycling-manufacturing process.
Disclosure statement
4.4. Future work
The authors have no conflict of interest.
More work is needed in this area to determine how many cycles are
technically feasible following Sanchez et al. (2015). For example, the Geolocation information
thermal properties would change and torsion strength would decrease
as more recycled ABS is being mixed in the virgin ABS resin (Chen et al., U.S.A., Finland.
2011). Future work is necessary to investigate the difference of thermal
properties and physical properties between printed parts from recycled References
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in FCC. Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 125, 499–506. Yuan, Z., Bi, J., Moriguichi, Y., 2006. The circular economy: a new development strategy

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S. Zhong, J.M. Pearce Resources, Conservation & Recycling 128 (2018) 48–58

in China. J. Ind. Ecol. 10 (1–2), 4–8. Shan Zhong is a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Zhang, J., Wang, X., Gong, J., Gu, Z., 2004. A study on the biodegradability of poly- at the Michigan Technological University.
ethylene terephthalate fiber and diethylene glycol terephthalate. J. Appl. Polym. Sci.
93 (3), 1089–1096. Joshua M. Pearce is Professor cross-appointed in the Department of Materials
Zhong, S., Rakhe, P., Pearce, J.M., 2017. Energy payback time of a solar photovoltaic Science & Engineering and in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the
powered waste plastic recyclebot system. Recycling 2 (2), 10. http://dx.doi.org/10. Michigan Technological University where he runs the Open Sustainability Technology
3390/recycling2020010. Research Group. He is currently at Aalto University where he is the Fulbright-Aalto
Zhu, D.J., 1998. Sustainable development calls for circular economy. Sci. Technol. J. 9, University Distinguished Chair. His research concentrates on the use of open source ap-
39–42. propriate technology to find collaborative solutions to problems in sustainability and
poverty reduction.

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