We've all heard of the filament extruders that allow you to recycle old filament after grinding it up. It's something that many people think needs to be done more, in order to save the environment, and save on high filament costs. One 15 year old boy has decided to take it upon himself to create a 3D printing filament recycling program and store. He hopes to do so, with the help of Kickstarter. Read more at: http://3dprint.com/6156/3d-printer-recycling-program
I don't want to sound negative or sceptical but I think a little more thought needs to be given to the following points :
- sending back and forth over the mail kilos of plastic is probably not so ecological. I'm not even sure it is cost efficient.
- there are probably more industrial ways to do it large scale than several filabots side to side.
Have you considered using networks like 3Dhubs to deploy such filament recyclers ? At least there wouldn't be so much transportation pollution.
Have you considered beefing up the filabot to make it more industrial ? As things are you'll need to sleep next to it for weeks to fill the rewards...
It sounds like a good idea, however, there are definitely a few problems. The biggest thing I would suggest looking into is how filament is made in an industrial setting, the same way the original filament is made. Any filament extruding system that is home brewed does not cover the entire filament manufacturing process.
FYI, the KS campaign is now live - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ref=nav_search