We use our own machines to produce new spools and filament from bottle caps and other plastic waste - in other words, the "ink" for 3D printers.
Both the 100% recycled filament and the machines are available at our website!
Are you interested in plastic recycling?
Take part in one of our factory tours and get exclusive insights into our production
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We produce reusable spools from recycled bottle caps
Normally, black disposable spools are used for filament. This is unnecessary waste.
That's why we produce our own reusable filament spools.
For this we use old bottle caps in an injection molding process.
You can also get background insights into our production on our YouTube channel!
From where do we get the bottle caps
It all started with a local collection campaign for bottle caps, which we sorted by hand.
For the expansion of our coil production, we thought about how we could get more bottle caps.
Today, we receive large quantities of old lids from water manufacturers.
When reusable glass bottles are washed, the lids accumulate as waste because they are unscrewed before washing and cannot be reused.
What happens to the lids of returnable glass bottles?
To get to the bottom of this question, we contacted numerous mineral water producers and found out that every producer or bottler of mineral water is obliged to take back empty bottles. The lids of glass bottles cannot be reused due to the broken safety ring. Before rinsing the glass bottles, the old lids must logically be removed. What exactly happens to the lids afterwards is not fully documented.
A considerable proportion is sent for downcycling, where the colored lids are shredded and only brown or black plastic is recovered, which is used to make flower pots, for example.
Cooperative structure ensures uniform material and lid sizes
A remarkable aspect of this is that the mineral springs in the region are organized in a cooperative structure, which enables a uniform type of material and lid size.
Thanks to the generous support of Martin Schilling, the owner of Brohler Mineralwasser in Koblenz, we were able to regularly purchase 2 million lids. This is roughly the amount that he produces as waste every 3 days.
The lids could be unloaded at our premises when beverages are delivered in our direction.
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Our bottle cap sorting machine
Bottle caps come in all kinds of colors. If you shred them like this and melt them down, you get a brown mush.
If you mix colors once - you can never get them apart again (=downcycling).
That's why we sort the bottle caps by color first.
To be able to sort even larger quantities, we built a sorting machine with the help of Philipp Schmechel.
In the future, however, we want to develop an AI-based bottle cap sorting machine that is ten times faster than the previous version. With this new machine, we aim to produce high-quality plastic granulate from the bottle caps in a highly profitable way
Find out more in the pitch by Milan and Philipp at the Founders League:
We produce filament from recycled plastic
After the first newspaper article from the start-up garage, Mr. Jost from JOST Plastec invited us to his production facility to "see how professionals do it". In Ingelheim, HZ and JOST Plastec produce plastic profiles, e.g. skirting boards and the associated connectors. During the injection molding of the connectors, waste sprue is produced. Furthermore, at the beginning of the extrusion of profiles, additional scrap is produced because the profiles do not yet have the perfect color. These rejects cannot be reused directly, as the most precise standards are set during production and, for example, the perfect shade of white must be achieved. For us, the real shade of the color is not as relevant, so we have produced our ASA filament series from it.
Old video. We now have larger shredders and a factory building, and instead of a car we use transporters. Otherwise, the process remains the same.
In our garage days, we got to know Robel Goitom from Grünstoff Recycling, one of the fastest growing recycling companies in the polycarbonate (PC) sector.
When Grünstoff had surplus PETG sheets, the idea of a collaboration was born. With their larger plastic granulators in their factory building in Frankfurt, they can also shred large PETG sheets into granulate.
These sheets are production rejects from a large German company (whose name we are currently not allowed to disclose). The sheet rejects are produced during the start of production when the sheets are not yet clear enough or the diameter fluctuates.
After Grünstoff shreds the sheets, we collect it and grind it into fine granulate (4 mm), which we use to produce our PETG filament series.
"GFR Entsorgungs GmbH" is a family-run recycling company in Oderwitz, Saxony. As part of the prototype project, we have started to process the PETG material collected by GFR into new 3D printing filament.
GFR Entsorgung GmbH
Coming Soon...
Energeta Ersatzbrennstoffe GmbH, founded by Gisbert Schulte-Bücker, is based in Ochtrup with the aim of returning as many plastics as possible to production cycles. Thanks to the attentive team at Energeta, we were contacted when we discovered large quantities of filament production waste from a major German company. This is material from various technical plastics filaments, which we process and test in material tests.
We also provide weekly insights into our production on social media
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Yes, since this year we also started selling our filament rolls as refills or with our recycled Masterspool made from old bottle caps.
Yes, we have spent the last 3 years developing the JARVIS Filament Line, specifically to process recycled plastics. JARVIS consists of modular machines for the production of 3D printing filament, which we design and build (in-house) in our factory in Darmstadt. We have now delivered over 70 machines to 14 different countries and can count FORD, BMW and numerous universities among our customers.
Here is a video where you can see our filament line:
3D printing waste recycling service for business customers
For large companies, we recycle 3D printing waste in a closed loop to produce new filament for their production.
We receive large quantities of uniform material from corporate customers, which is why recycling makes sense and is profitable.
Here is an example video.
3D printing waste recycling service for private customers
No. We do not believe that it makes sense for private individuals to send 1-2 kilos of filament waste across Germany for recycling.
We believe that in the future, local makerspaces will establish themselves as collection points.
If your local makerspace has set up a collection program and has over 20 kilos properly sorted - feel free to contact us! - Then recycling also makes sense and justifies the shipping costs.
The following problems need to be considered when collecting from private individuals.
1. Wide variety of materials
Under the name "PLA" there are a large number of common derivatives such as Tough PLA, HT-PLA, Lightweight PLA and many more. Each variant has different properties and melting points, which makes recycling more difficult or leads to inferior 3D printing filaments.
2. residues of print bed adhesives
Minor residues of print bed adhesives on the recycled parts are not a problem. However, we have received submissions that were so heavily coated with adhesive that they were almost impossible to handle. As we do not have a plastic washing system, we cannot process such parts.
3. welded-in brass inserts
Customers have forgotten to remove the welded-in brass threads from items sent in. These pieces of metal damage the blades of our JARVIS shredders
4. Different colors
We receive large quantities of industrial waste in the same color. 3D printing waste from private individuals comes in all kinds of colors and automatic color sorting of 3D printing waste would be very complex. Manual sorting would involve a lot of effort and costs.
5. Contamination from dust and dirt
We have already received very dusty and dirty submissions. Such foreign bodies can clog the extruder nozzle. Manual cleaning would involve considerable effort and costs.
How do we proceed here?
We don't currently have the capital to build a huge washing system. That's why we only work with business customers where we know their materials and processes, or with makerspaces that do a decent job of collecting. If you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to contact us .
Yeah, we've built an injection moulding machine and milled several shapes for spools, so we can now recycle bottle cap granulate into master spools. We are even expanding the whole process with a new machine.
Here is a video of the spool production (Attention: Old video! Update video coming soon)
Yes. However, we do not accept empty coils to refill.
We don't believe in a future where we keep sending the black single-use plastic coils across Germany. We believe in our #MasterSpool Concept.
What do you do with empty filament spools then?
They go into the shredder. We receive high-quality PC or ABS PC that we are currently collecting so that we can use it to injection mold new master coils. Currently, our masterspools consist of bottle caps. In the future, we want to make new master coils from the PC material from old coils. We don't have enough material for that yet, but that would be a cool statement.
Do you pay for the shipping of empty filament spools to your factory in Darmstadt??
No. We don't think it makes sense for private people to send 1–2 coils queer through Germany for recycling. We believe that in the future, local makerspaces will prevail as collection points.
Currently, we collect coils mainly from business customers who switch to our Masterspools and surrounding companies. If you have too many spools lying around and recycling them is worth the shipping costs, you can send the spools to our factory in Darmstadt.
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