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Used Coffee Pods Can be Recycled to Produce Filaments for 3D Printing
Used coffee pods can be recycled to produce filaments for 3D printing [fapesp.br]:
An article published [acs.org] in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering brings good news for coffee buffs: the plastic in used coffee pods can be recycled to make filament for 3D printers, minimizing its environmental impact.
[...] "We produced new conductive and non-conductive filaments from waste polylactic acid [PLA] from used coffee machine pods. There are many applications for these filaments, including conductive parts for machinery and sensors," Bruno Campos Janegitz [fapesp.br], a co-author of the article, told Agência FAPESP. Janegitz heads the Sensors, Nanomedicine and Nanostructured Materials Laboratory (LSNano) at UFSCar in Araras, São Paulo state.
[...] Although reusable pods exist and some suppliers promote recycling of aluminum pods, most consumers just throw used pods into the garbage bin, especially if they are made of plastic. Considering all the factors involved, calculations [www.ipt.br] made by the São Paulo State Technological Research Institute (IPT) show that "a cup of pod coffee can be as much as 14 times more damaging to the environment than a cup of filter coffee".
To develop uses for this waste, the researchers produced electrochemical cells with non-conductive filaments of PLA and electrochemical sensors with conductive filaments prepared by adding carbon black to the PLA. Carbon black is a paracrystalline form of carbon that results from incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons. "The electrochemical sensors were used to determine the proportion of caffeine in black tea and arabica coffee," Janegitz explained.
Production of filament is relatively simple, he added. "We obtain the non-conductive material simply by washing and drying PLA pods, followed by hot extrusion. To obtain the conductive material, we add carbon black before heating and extrusion. The extruded material is then cooled and spooled to produce the filament of interest," he explained.
Journal Reference:
Evelyn Sigley, Cristiane Kalinke, Robert D. Crapnell, et al., Circular Economy Electrochemistry: Creating Additive Manufacturing Feedstocks for Caffeine Detection from Post-Industrial Coffee Pod Waste [open], ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2023, 11, 7, 2978–2988 https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c06514 [doi.org]
