Weighing up the impact

3D printing is also referred to as additive manufacturing. Unlike making a piece of clothing or die-cutting packaging - where material is removed to create the final product (subtractive manufacturing) - additive manufacturing creates an object layer by layer, so very little to no material is wasted as offcuts or excess.

It’s not a completely zero waste process, however. Support structures may be necessary for some designs, which need to be cut away after printing; prototyping is still essential; and printer fails and technical issues can result in waste product, but in general, 3D printing can reduce scrap waste by as much as 90% compared to methods such as CNC manufacturing or injection moulding.

There are also arguments in favour of the carbon efficiency of 3D printing. It often requires less space, doesn’t rely on the transport of parts and materials between countries, and the resulting products are often more lightweight. However, as with any material or product, the potential environmental benefits should be interrogated, not assumed. In 2020, one company compared the carbon footprint of an in-car phone holder ordered from China via Amazon to one 3D printed in-house. It managed to reduce the product's weight from 54 grams to 32 grams, resulting in a 40% carbon footprint reduction, while the emissions generated from transportation were 0.002 kilograms of CO2 for 3D printing versus 0.017 kilograms for purchasing. However, the carbon cost of the material, manufacturing, and life usage were higher for 3D printing than for purchasing the item. And the energy demands were higher too. A 3D printing machine can require 100 times the energy to process one kilogram of material compared to CNC machining.

The pros of printing on-demand

As we explored in our piece on grown-to-order cosmetics by Haeckels, on-demand manufacturing is central to reducing waste, but it has other benefits too. Being able to 3D print products or spare parts on-demand can cut down on the cost of warehousing and the energy needed to keep such large spaces running. It allows you to be responsive to the market and the needs of your clients, opens up low MOQs, and protects you against market fluctuations.

3D printing on-demand also facilitates customisation, something that Fit My Foot (formerly Wiivv) leans into, creating custom fit insoles from a 3D scan of each customer's feet. Product customisation already has a solid foundation, central to 'co-creation' concepts like Nike By You, Unspun's custom jeans, and the Fender Mod Shop. It can result in a 45% boost in brand loyalty, with 90% of consumers willing to pay more for customised products. And in an additional boost for 3D printing, the lead time for custom product is much shorter, tackling a major source of frustration for consumers.

Expanded possibilities for multiple industries

While many of the overarching reasons to embrace 3D printing - like customisation and efficiency - have remained the same since its inception, the scope of the technology has grown exponentially in a relatively short amount of time. By 2010, designer Iris Van Herpen was already showing 3D-printed clothes, while Bespoke Innovations was manufacturing 3D-printed prosthetic limbs. Now applications span ceramic body armour, sneakers, 'fish fillets', bricks, cars, and packaging.

Manufacturing and materials company NEFFA envisages an automated future where robots 3D print mycelium garments onto custom body moulds, cutting out waste by doing away with separate panels and the synthetic thread needed to stitch them together. Celwise, meanwhile, doesn't 3D print its final moulded pulp products, but it uses 3D printing to create the tools needed for its proprietary manufacturing technology. The speed at which they can be produced results in a 20% time saving and cost savings of 30-40%. According to the company, one tree 20 centimetres by 14 metres in size can yield 30,000 large moulded pulp coffee cups.

In the food sector, 3D printing is being used to ease the impact of the meat and fish industries. Redefine Meat prints 'meat', with nozzles labeled fat, blood, and muscle each providing a particular flavour and texture. While Redefine Meat's products are plant-based, a 3D-printed fish fillet created as part of a partnership between Steakholder Foods and Umani Meats involves the use of fish cells to create a 'bio-ink'. Using patent-protected printing methods, Steakholder Foods says it can "3D print exactly the same texture and flakiness of real fish".

It's still in development - expected to launch in Singapore in 2024 - but it could provide an answer to depleted fish stocks without us having to forgo fish altogether. If printed on demand in a restaurant setting, it could also potentially provide an alternative to transporting heavily packaged fresh produce.

At the other end of the spectrum in terms of scale, 2022 saw construction begin on the first 3D-printed multi-storey house in the US. Built by New York studio Hannah, the structure of the 4,000-square-foot home took 220 hours to print. It follows on from what is claimed to be the world's first 3D-printed net-zero home by Mighty Buildings. Unlike the Hannah house, which was printed onsite, Mighty Buildings prints its panels in a factory and assembles them onsite. This makes construction twice as fast, according to the company, and reduces waste by 99%.

Counteracting built-in obsolescence 

The emergence of right-to-repair regulations to combat built-in obsolescence, the increasing popularity of modular design, and an urgent transition towards more circular models are, in may ways, reliant on the availability of spare parts, making 3D printing integral to many companies. Porsche Classic, for example, uses 3D printing to produce rare, low volume spare parts for older vehicles, keeping them running for longer. Only 292 Porsche 959s were ever made, so setting up a production line for spare parts would be highly inefficient. But by 3D printing parts - such as the release lever for the clutch - as and when they're needed, Porsche Classic can keep cars on the road and retain the loyalty of its core audience for longer.

In 2021, Whirlpool partnered with Spare Parts 3D to digitise its spare parts catalogue with the aim of overcoming obsolescence and tackling parts shortages. 150 parts were reviewed for manufacture using different 3D printing technologies, with a push button being the first one to get the go ahead.

Meanwhile, in 2022 commercial vehicle manufacturer Daimler Truck announced it would allow owners of Mercedes-Benz and Setra buses and coaches to 3D print certified spare parts "quickly and cheaply at their own premises". In licensing the 3D printing of parts, Daimler proposed to do away with "convoluted" ordering processes, shipping, and wait times. For individuals who want a similar option for their personally owned products, My Mini Factory is an open source platform that enables consumers to 3D print everything from branded vacuum cleaner attachments to on/off buttons for washing machines.

Such a decentralised ecosystem gives more agency to the end user, and ensures that manufacturers can't impose unnecessarily expensive and hard-to-access repair strategies, which exacerbate waste. The appetite to distribute the powers of repair and maintenance was underscored in the drawn out legal battle between John Deere and US farmers who sought the right to fix their own equipment. The farmers won that right in January 2023.

A question of materials

As 3D printing has expanded, so too have the materials available to print with. Hannah used concrete to 3D print its building, which was supported by a wooden frame, while Mighty Buildings uses a patented composite stone material which is coated in an epoxy primer and acrylic paint. XtreeE, which manufactures large-scale 3D printing systems, can utilise concrete, plaster, and clay, while the base materials for Forust's wood-based filament are sawdust and lignin. The custom frame for the Superstrata Bike is 3D printed in a continuous carbon fibre composite, and Krill Design uses orange peels, lemon peels, and coffee grounds in its filament. However, the latter filament is a bioplastic which poses many of the same problems at end-of-life as conventional plastic.

Krill Design isn't an outlier. Despite an expansion of materials, plastic remains central to many products and 3D printing materials. From coffee filament and sandstone filament, to hemp filament and wood filament, PLA is generally always lurking in the mix. Even the self-proclaimed 'most ecological 3D filament in the world' is plastic.

Because of the widespread use of PLA and bio-based materials, plastics used in 3D printing are often marketed as biodegradable or compostable which, as PlasticFree has previously discussed, is not a given. If they're not marketed this way, they're promoted as recyclable due to their monomaterial status. In 2023, both Pangaia and Rains have partnered with Zellerfeld to create 3D-printed sneakers designed to be custom made according to the buyer's preference for width, fit, and comfort. The sneakers are printed from fossil fuel-based TPU and are marketed as being fully recyclable via return to Zellerfeld. However, recycled sneakers must be mixed with virgin material to make new product, and Zellerfeld has not yet developed the technology to make a 100% recycled shoe.

Pangaia, which is positioned as a planet-and-people-first brand, tries to mitigate any concerns around the use of plastic by assuring consumers that it is working with Zellerfeld to create an 'innovative material' to replace TPU. This pre-emptive statement gets to the heart of the issue. The plastic recycling system is simply not robust enough to justify the introduction of yet more plastic products to the market. Absent of a closed-loop system, what's really needed is a commercially ready, plastic-free filament. Only then will 3D-printed sneakers - and other such consumer products - be a viable product which avoids further polluting an already heavily polluted planet.

3D printing can offer a wealth of benefits and sits at the centre of much exciting innovation, but there is a lot of development needed before it's a technology that naturally sits hand-in-hand with plastic-free design. It's certainly something to stick with and build, but it's not a ready-to-go solution.

Key Takeaways: