3D Printing Functional Goods from Waste

re:3D is a social enterprise committed to decimating the cost & scale barriers to 3D-printing in order to create jobs & enable problem-solvers worldwide to independently address local needs.

Gigabot, re:3D's flagship technology is a large, industrial 3D-printer starting under $9K. Gigabot rivals the printing quality of other industrial printers at 1/10 the cost and boasts a build volume starting at 30X larger than desktop models.

Founded with $40K from Start-Up Chile, re:3D was a top ranking graduate and successfully closed a $250K Kickstarter campaign for Gigabot while in residency. 7 years later, re:3D has continued to sell printers in 50+ countries.

With no outside investment, all developments to enable human-scale 3D-printing solutions have been accomplished through partnerships, crowdfunding and prizes. 

Recently re:3D modified Gigabot to directly 3D-print directly from shredded reclaimed plastic waste to truly enable affordable, sustainable, and locally driven manufacturing in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean & beyond.

Caribbean islands encounter unique challenges as up to 80% of goods are imported, often with long & expensive supply chains.  For critical and high demand goods, resource scarcity & regional considerations must be therefore anticipated in advance in order to ensure all necessary materials are available when needed. Imported goods with potential to be manufactured locally through 3D-printing are an attractive alternative to offsetting the $20B spent on imported goods in Puerto Rico, considering unemployment is at 16.5% and small business is growing at 4%.  

While Fused Filament Fabrication offers tremendous benefit for rapid prototyping, mass customization, and low cost fabrication, the technology is contingent on access to high-quality extruded feedstock. Currently the 3D printer industry represents a "blade & razor" model, where users must have access to feedstock manufacturers. Not surprisingly, heat maps of 3D-printer usage show deployment primarily in N.America, China, and Western Europe. After interviews with current & potential users in the Caribbean & LatAm, re:3D began to question if 3D-printer adoption would increase if access to the 3D-printing supply chain was democratized by leveraging plastic waste. This also offers energy & concomitant emissions savings. For this reason, re:3D opened an office in Puerto Rico in 2017.

3D-printing creates an untapped opportunity to more affordably and accessibly support industrial manufacturing for island nations.

Specifically, the ability to source locally available raw material and feed it directly as pellets or shavings/flake into a printer rather than extruded filament is advantageous in reducing cost and increasing access to 3d-printing. The benefits of this innovation are amplified when 3D-printing large-scale industrial objects (defined as >18in cubed) as the production of large-scale products represents a larger investment of time and material costs. Pellets/flake are <1/10th filament cost and address the need to print faster. Finally, a dependence on extruded thermoform plastics limits the available library for printing and the ability to mix materials to engineer new formulations and/or the ability to introduce additives directly into the machine while printing.

With domain expertise in large-scale 3D-printing, re:3D has developed a pellet & flake/regrind extrusion 3D printer capable of printing with PET-the material found in water bottles-and other reclaimed materials, to further optimize the pellet printer to be able to accept reclaimed flake as well as non-uniform pellets. This effort includes developing a compatible grinder & dryer to easily switch between materials.

As advocates for helping people independently address local needs, we're motivated by the opportunity to sustainably create jobs, foster economic independence, and stimulate economies. Specifically we're confident that that the Gigabot we modified to print from ground up plastic, as well as our current offering, will create many jobs. Our customers have already created cash flow positive companies, and are impacting their local economies. 

Recently re:3D received a grant from the Puerto Rico Science & Research Trust to configure a shipping container w/their GigabotX large scale 3D printers that can print directly from shredded plastic waste + a granulator, dryer & tools to process garbage into functional goods needed in Puerto Rico where 80% of goods are imported, landfills are filling & unemployment is high. All of these problems are exacerbated by COVID. In parallel, re:3D is testing local manufacturing & consumer waste while working with multiple stakeholders. Grant funds support 2 hires for a 6mo pilot to design & print functional goods. With the support of a $10,000 award from MIT solve, we hope to create at least 1 new business and 2 new jobs in the Caribbean using a large-scale 3D printer that can accept reground plastic (recycled or non-recycled). The award  would be used to extend the pilot from 6months to 9 months (3 additional months). Aside from supporting employment and training 2 Puerto Ricans to design & 3D print functional goods from waste, this award supports the following benefits: 

Sustainable Input Materials: The world has produced over 9B tons of plastic since the 1950s, and only about 9% was recycled. Enabling 3D printers to use plastic waste has the potential to repurpose 30,000 bottles/month into functional products from the consistent use of only 1 Gigabot X in Puerto Rico, however the potential for this new technology is endless. A $10,000 award would support the processing and printing of 90,000 water bottles in PR. 

Reducing Transportation and CO2 Emissions: As pollution reduction is tied to supply chain management (less transportation = less pollution), a secondary environmental gain from encouraging more local manufacturing is the reduction in transportation costs. Worldwide, a A 85% transportation cost savings is anticipated over the next 10 years as 50% of global goods are expected to be made locally- finished goods from Asia, or other major export markets, will not need to be shipped. 

Waste Diversion: As several PR landfills are anticipated to close in 5 years, the proposed technology can divert 90,000 bottles with the $10,000 Solve award with an economic upside. 

After establishing operations in Puerto Rico in 2017, and enduring hurricane Harvey, which hit our Houston Factory 1mo before Hurricanes Irma and Maria, we've personally witnessed the opportunity onsite manufacturing provides in disaster response/resiliency.

Since 2017, we have: 

• Provided free 3D design and printing services and hosted a monthly island-wide meetup for those interested in earning incomes through 3D printing
• Sold hardware & services across the island
• Mentored countless entrepreneurs 
• Cultivated a relationship w/the Puerto Rican Science & Research Trust to explore opportunties to design & print functional objects to create new jobs
• Presented to the island's manufaturing association

This award couldn't be better aligned as we have prototyped goods printed from waste (in Houston) for application that have been tested in Puerto Rico (see https://re3d.org/gbx-puerto-ri... for over a year), and are preparing to bring the hardware to the island for a strategic pilot that this award would augment outside of San Juan. Specifically, water bottles remaining from the 2017 hurricanes would be shredded, processed and printed to make goods for farmers in Adjuntas. This award could extend the pilot and impact. 

Currently only two companies have globally commercialized a large format Filament based 3D-printer with a minimum of 2ft+ build volume under $30K/ printer (BigRep, 3DP). Neither of these organizations retail a pellet printing system and/or the ability to print with shredded plastic waste, rather they are limited to filament extrusion. There is one company that is recognized for selling affordable hardware to extrude plastic pellets into filament (Filabot), however output can be inconsistent. There is also an amazing movement that uses open source hardware to extrude filament from shredded waste (Precious Plastics) as well as a commercial desktop system (3DEDEVO), however it as well is better suited for makers and smaller volume production. re:3D’s direct drive pellet extruder is unique in that re:3D produces an integrated system that directly leverages pelletized or shredded plastic, rather than extruding feedstock in a secondary device which then requires coiling & loading onto a FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) 3D-printer. This technology is available as both a 3D-printer and as a device that can be mounted to other 3D printing platforms besides those sold by re:3D. You can view both our affordable large scale filament as well as pellet/flake printers at https://re3d.org/gigabot. By demand, and subsequent funding from the National Science Foundation, re:3D intends to release an affordable drying and grinding system to complement Gigabot by the end of 2021. This technology is being design based on requirements provided by our Puerto Rican community and will be piloted on the island. 

The core technology powering our solution will be two of our Gigabot X XLT fused granular fabrication printer described in the solution. This will offer a build platform of approximately 2ftx2ftx1.5 ft to #dreambigprinthuge. Additionally the requisite tools & supplies to collect, sort, clean and process water bottles for granulation & drying will be included. The granulator, dryer, printers and supplies will be housed in a shipping container that has external power near the source of plastic water bottles. 

re:3D’s current customer base includes users from 50+ countries. The largest traction has been in manufacturing, rapid prototyping, design, and education, to include many enterprises and federal agencies. One-time sales average $17500 USD for a Gigabot, with repeat sales for upgrades, additional Gigabots, custom solutions and feedstock. re:3D also offers  services for installation, maintenance, and upgrades.

Gigabot X has already been purchased and delivered to multiple users in 3 continents despite being in beta. Academics & press have already begun publishing papers on the opportunties the hardware enables in recycling and advanced manufacturing: 

-https://designnews.com/materia...

-https://austintexas.gov/blog/r...

-https://3dprintingindustry.com...

- Woern, A.L.; Byard, D.J.; Oakley, R.B.; Fiedler, M.J.; Snabes, S.L.; Pearce, J.M. Fused Particle Fabrication 3-D Printing: Recycled Materials’ Optimization and Mechanical Properties. Materials 2018, 11,1413, doi:10.3390/ma11081413

-Byard, D.J.; Woern, A.L.; Oakley, R.B.; Fiedler, M.J.; Snabes, S.L.; Pearce, J.M. Green fab lab applications of large-area waste polymer-based additive manufacturing. Additive Manufacturing 2019, 27, 515–525.

-Reich, M.J., Woern, A.L., Tanikella, N.G. and Pearce, J.M., 2019. Mechanical Properties and Applications of Recycled Polycarbonate Particle Material Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing. Materials, 12(10), p.1642. 

As a bootstrapped company, being lean is a necessity and outbound marketing is a challenge. For this reason, we depend on speaking opportunities and channel partnerships to promote our offerings. As former NASA nerds & serial entrepreneurs, we lack a network in foundations, large corporate organizations, and academia. We need to aggressively pursue introductions to strategic partners to succeed.

Assuming re:3D is successful in pioneering a commercially available modification of Gigabot to 3D print from plastic waste + developing the associated hardware, the utility of Gigabot's printable output is inherently dependent on the structural properties of the plastic input filament material. Thus, it may not be suitable for all intended uses. Additionally input material will likely be sourced from, multiple waste providers, and some waste may be contaminated. re:3D is thus prioritizing research to include mixed & dirty plastics.

Despite risks of adding technical features to a proven platform and then having to support community management, re:3D’s engineers feel it is imperative to start prototyping solutions to enabled 3D printing from reclaimed plastic with the support of academics devoted to additive manufacturing. We also feel that it is inherently right. 

These developments needed to optimize the grinder, shredder and dryer for income driving Puerto Rican needs consume valuable engineering, management, and resources that re:3D could allocate to other priorities. However, with the support of this award, re:3D could offset these risks and pioneer a much needed advancement.

re:3D’s current customer base includes users from 50+ countries. The largest traction has been in manufacturing, rapid prototyping, design, and education, to include many enterprises and federal agencies. One-time sales average $17500 USD for a Gigabot, with repeat sales for upgrades, additional Gigabots, custom solutions and feedstock. re:3D also offers  services for installation, maintenance, and upgrades. 

Winning  this award will allow us to extend a strategic pilot in Puerto Rico where we intend to employee two Puerto Ricans to process and produce functional goods they design for local usage & sale. We hope to support them starting their own business and to inspire others to do the same. We anticipate the Garbage-eating Gigabot + the commercial grinder to scale to at least 10 new countries and to create at least four more jobs within re:3D within 6 months of commercial sales post conclusion and publication of this pilot. As this solution will provide groups and individuals one more tool in their toolkit for onsite fabrication, we believe it will stimulate increased opportunities for job creation whether it be in product/output design & sales, or in plastic trash collection & fabrication. Specifically, we believe we can create 500 jobs within 5 years through 2nd and 3rd offsets by enabling locally driven, sustainable, and affordable manufacturing. Finally, we hope that by expanding the reach of 3D printers, we can support technology adoption & innovation in new & emerging markets that will offer a sustainable upside.

Within the next year we hope to have completed a six month strategic pilot with either 1) a huge manufacturing company (and household name that is disposing of metic tons annually in Puerto Rican landfills) and/or 2) a contractor and/or government agency assigned to disposing of the spoiled water bottles sitting on landfills and warehouses in Puerto Rico. We are in contact with multiple groups that could grant permission for either objective and welcome feedback from the MIT SOLVE community. 

Within the next five years, we hope to have scaled our efforts to create hundreds of job in Puerto Rico, while decreasing the dependence on imported goods. We also hope to have scaled a similar pilot to Aruba, and have supported our customer and collaborator Brenchie's Lab there (who applied to the Solve Plastics Challenge), to have maximized opportunity to scale new job creation and waste reduction across their island. Not so secretly, we are also hoping that our peers in the BVI, DR, and Bahamas whose governments expressed interest in our technology, will have also initiated strategic pilots. 

Along w/waste reduction and increased processing of recycled plastics, the use of recycled materials for additive manufacturing to promote job growth for collection, sorting & material processing will be measured. There is also potential to further stimulate new business creation for problem-solvers worldwide who can use this technology for locally-driven, affordable low-rate manufacturing. We will measure impact by the number of jobs created with our Gigabot modified to accept reclaimed plastic through pellet extrusion as well as the quantity of reclaimed plastic that our customers report being repurposed through this technology. Currently re:3D provides an annual survey to customers that yields an 80%+ response rate. This questionnaire allows customers to reveal employment created through the use of Gigabot, as well as materials used and hours spent printing. We intend to continue polling our customers as well as those that purchase our systems to 3D print from waste once complete.

While we welcome MIT Solve's feedback on how we can better quantify impact, we are aware that we have delivered over 500 systems to 3D print affordably large-scale in the last 5 years, and 6 systems to print specifically from shredded waste in the last six months since the beta system was released.

The biggest demand for the commercialized grinder and printer system has come from island nations such as Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Aruba. Based on initial purchase orders and inquiries, re:3D anticipates $200K and 500 jobs created in 2nd and 3rd offsets within 5 years of commercial release. 

20 people work on our team from our Houston, Austin and San Juan offices.

Our unfair advantage is that our NASA team of scientists & engineers has the knowledge, network and now how to execute our vision. We also have a reliable, quality, industrial 3D printer we have supported in 50+ countries for 8 years, giving us confidence we can work with users globally to print their dreams using local resources.

The re:3D team consists of dynamic, passionate makers with diverse professional backgrounds, yet united by one singular vision: to enable 3D-printing accessibility for onsite fabrication. Teammates focused on new product development have highly complementary pedigrees that often leverage past professional NASA experiences. Each team member had a unique moment that fostered an interest in 3D printing & frontier markets.

Professionally and as problem solvers, they have each also witnessed emerging gaps, specifically relating to the functionality and sustainability of 3D printing processes, as well as geographic access. Key contributors & co-founders include Samantha Snabes and Matthew Fiedler, who possess the firmware, business strategy, robotics, marketing, and additive manufacturing background necessitated to pioneer the technology proposed.

Future hires include additional engineers & machinists as well as a dedicated materials scientists to help identify & overcome challenges in working with reclaimed plastic. These hires have already been identified from Matthew & Samantha's network of former NASA employees.

As a small business with a global presence, re:3D lives and breaths its mission to democratize access to manufacturing. Our focus on providing a tool for anyone, anywhere, anytime to be the problem solvers for their community has connected us with like-minded change-makers around the world, and the pandemic has only served to solidify our resolve and emphasize the fact that 21st century problems need 21st century solutions. From our outpost in Puerto Rico to our customers and partners in Turkey, Kenya, Nigeria and beyond, re:3D and its network has exemplified manufacturing as a service in helping our communities innovate throughout the pandemic and beyond. 

Our diverse team is balanced in gender working to be more inclusive in race & background by supporting apprenticeships, targeted STEAM training, and internships with underrepresented populations. We have a full time teammate committed to helping us expand the demographics of our team, customers and engagement efforts alongside our partners at Unreasonable, Impact Hub and Habitat for Humanity who share our focus on diversity, equity & inclusion. You can view some of our teammates, and their backgrounds at https://re3d.org/about. 

We applied to the T Prize Challenge as it would provide us with the resources to make 3D printing from trash a reality, and we would love to have MIT SOLVE as a partner who share our relentless focus for innovation, sustainability and economic impact. As a veteran, maker, social entrepreneur & the only women CEO leading a 3D printing hardware manufacturing company (that fabricates in-house in the United States), I have felt incredibly marginalized during re:3D's journey. Not only would MIT Solve help re:3D bring our technology solutions to the largest audience possible, I not so secretly hoping based on other submissions not done at the the 11th hour like myself that it would provide a network, and much needed support to continue pursuing a road less traveled. I would also be incredibly honored to collaborate & learn from the past, present and future leaders in the program!

We are actively seeking strategic partnerships to pilot this technology. Specifically we are targeting manufacturing companies who are sending clean & virgin waste that we could otherwise divert to local landfills anticipated to reach capacity in 2 years in Puerto Rico. 

We are also struggling to identify strategic hires (both salary and trade skills) and could use some help. As we are not materials scientists, we welcome intros to anyone in applied polymers that could help. 

Finally, as nerds we struggle sharing our story as well as our customers online and could very much use mentorship.

We would be over the moon excited to collaborate with any manufactures who are currently paying to dispose of waste in the Caribbean, MIT SOLVE, or the UN. Having quit our jobs at NASA, and foregone larger salaries our team is 1000% committed to 3D printing useful objects from plastic waste where it makes sense!