Sustainable 3D printing material developerFilaretis working with Estonian authorities to recycle discarded cigarettes from the country’s beaches into filament.
As part of an initiative rolled out at local government level in Estonia’s capital Tallinn, special litter bins have been installed along some of the city’s beaches, in which the public are being encouraged to discard cigarette butts. In two months’ time, Filaret says it plans to return, and convert any waste collected from these into a new eco-friendly, compostable 3D printing material.
塔林副市长Joosep Vimm说：“我希望这些特殊的香烟垃圾箱能帮助减少这种广泛的海洋垃圾。”“使该项目特别有趣的是，除了从海滩上收集香烟屁股外，它们还将被升级为可堆肥的3D打印材料，从而减少了塑料废物的问题。”
Filaret’s upcycling business
Filaret由企业家二人组合Ines-issa Villido和Kristina Jacqueline Leon共同创立，是一家专门从事“给香烟屁股的第二人生”的初创企业。实际上，该公司通过将香烟浪费收集到可持续的自然友好型细丝中来实现这一目标，以一种回收的形式，其目的是在3D打印中“制定规范”。
Filaret is backed byTehnopol Startup Incubator,一个倡议建立支持emerging Estonian companies with up to €10,000, as well as mentoring to help bring potential ‘world-changing ideas’ into reality. Also supported byPrototron和the塔林技术大学, the start-up has already managed to strike partnerships with local groups, likeI Land Sound和holidaymakerLarsen.
除了在塔林地区与地方政府的最新举措外，丝丝打算与此类合作伙伴合作以回收香烟废物的机制还不清楚。但是，随着即将到来的灯丝，该公司已经将标准杆设置得很高，称其将代表“创新材料的新标准”，该标准能够“破坏3D印刷行业”。
Cleaning up Tallinn’s beaches
According to local authorities in Tallinn, cigarette butts are one of the most common types of marine litter in the Baltic Sea. While the vast body of water is filled with discarded plastic as well, most of the waste found in it (and in nearby coastal areas) is made up of butts and filters, which are toxic and non-biodegradable. In fact, a single butt can pollute up to 1,000 liters of water, while the toxins released from a filter can persist for up to 10 years, during which they’re lethal to aquatic life.
To tackle this threat to marine biodiversity, the Circular Economy Department of the Tallinn Strategic Management Office has begun working with Filaret. Together, the organizations have partnered with authorities in Põhja-Tallinn, to set up a series of cigarette waste collection bins along the district’s coastline in three locations: Stroomi beach park, Katariina quay and the fishermen’s slip at Pikakari beach.
Using the cigarette butts and filters gathered from what will eventually grow to twenty bins between now and October, Filaret, which has also worked on other initiatives with Tallinn’s port and airport authorities, plans to create circular 3D printing materials. In doing so, Vimm says he hopes to see cigarette waste in his city reduced, to the point that it helps avert any potential public health issues.
“Every year, almost eighty tons of cigarette filters end up in nature,” explained Vimm. “They do not decompose, and the toxic substances contained in them once again end up in the arc through marine animals and into the human diet. I hope that the special cigarette butt cans will help reduce the generation of this widespread marine litter.”
Recycled filament in 3D printing
Although Filaret’s sustainability goals are admirable, it’s only the latest in a string of material developers seeking to turn marine waste into functional 3D printing filament. SinceFishy Filaments’ crowdfunding campaignin 2017, the firm has continued to grow, and it now markets various PA6 nylon blends made from recycled marine plastics.
More recently in March,UBQ Materials won a 2022 South by Southwest award用于基于废物的3D打印丝。UBQ的第一种由其“气候正面”热塑性塑料制成的材料旨在留下大量减少的碳足迹。
At theTCT Asiatrade show in 2021,Polymaker和Covestroalso unveiled plans to develop a new3D printing material made from recycled bottles. Referred to only as ‘PC-R,’ at the time, the eco-friendly filament is based on a recycled polycarbonate developed by Covestro, that’s sourced from large reused Chinese water bottles.
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Featured image shows a Filaret cigarette recycling bin in Tallinn. Photo via Tallinn’s city government.
