Ben & Jerry's Spoons to be Recycled Into 3D Printer Filament

Filabot, the Vermont-based maker of the Filabot system of 3D printer filament extruders, says they're in the process of teaming up with the makers of gourmet ice cream, Ben and Jerry's, to “up-cycle” their used spoons into pellets and filament. The project is called 'Every Spoon Matters,' and it's aimed at bolstering the responsible use of plastic waste. Tyler McNaney, the founder of Filabot, says the project will gather spoons at selected Ben and Jerry's locations in fiber drums, wash the spoons, grind them into pellets with their Filabot Reclaimer, dry the pellets and then extrude some of those pellets into filament. The filament and pellets will be available to customers once the first batch of spoons has been processed. You can read the whole story here: http://3dprint.com/60418/filabot-ben...errys-upcycle/


Below is a look at the Every Spoon Matters collector drum:
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...jrLg_large.jpg

Thanks for sharing our plans! :)
We're really excited to get this project in full swing!

-Toby at Filabot

Yeah, I know this is an old post, but I'm totally digging it! (no pun intended). I'm still pretty new to the whole 3d printing world, but in my search for filament, I notice a lot of sellers tote that their filament is 100% virgin. Seriously, for the hobbyist at the very minimum, why would this matter? As long as quality control was tight, it shouldn't really make a difference, should it?