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Critical Dialogs of 3D Printing Waste Recycling in Circular Fashion
Summary
This review critically examines the challenges and opportunities of recycling 3D printing waste materials, specifically polylactic acid and thermoplastic polyurethane, within the context of circular fashion industry practices. The authors identified key barriers to effective recycling including material property degradation, contamination issues, and the need for dedicated infrastructure to treat these materials as biological and technical nutrients.
With the increasing use of 3D printing (3DP) in the fashion industry, recycling 3DP waste has gained significant attention from the industry professionals. However, little study has critically discussed existing challenges and opportunities of recycling 3DP waste, specifically polylactic acid (PLA) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), for sustainable practices in the fashion industry. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to provide a platform for critical dialogs about recycling PLA- and TPU-based 3DP waste as biological and technical nutrients while identifying key challenges and opportunities in their recycling process to advance circular waste management. The secondary data from relevant academic literature were used to frame this chapter. The key findings from those identified articles were the foundation to develop the main idea of this chapter. The secondary data analysis found that PLA holds great potential as biological nutrients due to its biodegradability, whereas TPU lacks inherent biodegradability, preventing it from functioning as biological nutrients. Despite certain challenges, both PLA- and TPU-based 3DP waste are highly recyclable, positioning them as ideal candidates as technical nutrients. However, circularity cannot be achieved unless circularity principles and practices are holistically understood and adopted by all stakeholders in the fashion industry. It is critical to engage all stakeholders as change agents to move forwards circularity in the 3DP fashion industry. This chapter deepens the understanding of challenges and opportunities associated with recycling PLA- and TPU-based 3DP waste. The chapter lays the foundation for researchers and industry professionals to further explore PLA- and TPU-based 3DP waste recycling within the circular fashion system.