3D printing, circular economy and sustainablity

Dr Mukul Chandra Bora

(The writer is Director, Dibrugarh University Institute of Engineering & Technology. He can be reached at drmukulcbora@gmail.com)

The current trend of the economic model mostly relies on the traditional linear economy that follows the principle of make, use and waste or disposal of products which has made our earth full of waste and unsustainable. It not only generates a huge amount of waste but also increases the pressure on finite natural resources along with emissions. The concept of "Circular Economy" (CE) was developed to minimize waste and pollution and make the most of resources by keeping products and materials in use as much as possible, and by recovering and regenerating products and materials at the end of each service life. The shifting from a linear to a circular economy can sustainably make the economic growth thereby reducing the consumption of the finite resources and minimizing the waste and environmental hazards. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the implementation of circular economy is guided by three principles: 1. Waste equals Food – Redefining the purpose of end-of-life products can extend their durability and reduce the environmental impacts of manufacturing new products. Within a closed-loop, appropriate maintenance, reuse, refurbishment and recycling can extend the life cycle of products. These products are no longer to be considered as waste, but as essential inputs to manufacturers and service providers; 2. Use renewable resources – By increasing the utilization of renewable or waste-derived resource and energy, the circular economy model could create new types of jobs and reduce environmental impacts, including carbon emissions. A New Dynamic 2: Effective Systems in a Circular Economy. Ellen MacArthur Foundation Publishing 3. Build resilience through diversity – To achieve the reduction of virgin material consumption and waste generation, supply chains need to be developed to reorient products from one manufacturing process into another. Therefore, the basic requirements of implementing a circular economy model require bringing together all the stakeholders of the economy which serve different functions within a circular economic model or system. Currently, the concept of circular economy has been integrated by many countries and organizations through different policies and China has acknowledged it as one of China's national development strategies in the 12thFive-Year Plan (2011-2015) and making Circular Economy Promotion Law in 2009. The European Commission launched its Action Plan in 2015 for the Circular Economy programme and set a policy framework that measures and targets waste management. The concept of circular economy is also being adopted by the United Nations for Sustainable Development Goals.

Circular economy (CE) is becoming a popular concept for Sustainable Development and are promoted by the European Union and various other national governments and a few of them are China, Japan, the UK, France, Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland. Furthermore, several business enterprises around the world have introduced CE in their manufacturing sectors to shave energy and raw materials but at this moment the concept of circular economy is a collection of some vague ideas from several technological fields and like a semi-scientific concept. A report of the European Commission in 2014 estimated that with a Circular Economy type transitions in the EU countries can create 600 billion euros annual economic gains for the EU manufacturing sector alone. Various international economic organizations estimated that the global economy would benefit 1,000 billion US dollars annually. China was the first country in the world that adopt a law for the circular economy in 2008. The initial concept of materials cycles has been around since the dawn of industrialization and was practised by industrial businesses because it reduced negative environmental impact, saved in energy consumption and made economic sense. But the linear throughput flow model in the industry and other businesses has dominated the overall industrial development causing serious environmental pollution and extensive use of limited natural resources. The Circular Economy approach focused on product, component and material reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishment, repair, cascading and upgrading. Also, reduced the energy needs by advocating alternative sources, such as solar, wind, biomass and waste-derived energy utilization throughout the product value chain. 5,6 Also, the concept of cradle-to-cradle was developed at the same time, which is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that models human industry on nature's processes viewing materials as nutrients circulating in healthy, safe metabolisms. 7 Ecological economics has a long tradition in recycling and other Circular Economy-type concepts on the macroeconomic level. Also on the microeconomic level, Circular Economy-type scientific papers have been published in ecological economics. These papers addressed the problem of eco-efficiency or industrial ecology. The Circular Economy concept represents the most recent attempt to conceptualize the integration of economic activity and environmental wellbeing sustainably. For example, a set of ideas for the CE has been adopted by China as the basis of their economic development. The Circular Economy emphasizes the redesign of processes and the cycling of materials, which may contribute to more sustainable business models and maximize ecosystem functioning and human wellbeing. The initial concept for CE started in 1983 when the United Nations General Assembly asked the then Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland to establish an independent commission to explore 'a global agenda for change' to formulate 'long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development by the year 2000 and beyond'. 12 The Circular Economy has featured in the last two 'Five Year Plans' drawn up by the Chinese government and is being operationalized in China.13 The concept of the CE has been proposed in the last decade by many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in developed countries. However, as the Circular Economy is relatively new in its conceptualization and implementation, there may also be tensions and limitations inherent in its appropriation and application.

The circular economy is a concept that seeks to make optimum use of resources to avoid waste. A recent flurry of sustainability announcements from 3D printing firms has revealed new eco-friendly materials, innovative methods of repurposing waste, and the launch of new projects seeking to reduce additive manufacturing's environmental footprint. 3D Printing Industry spoke to Emma Fromberg, Course Director at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and Marta Redrado Notivoli, the Project Coordinator of EU-funded research initiative BARBARA and chemical engineer at the Aitiip Technology Centre, to garner insights into the state-of-play of circularity within the 3D printing industry, and where opportunities lie for circular economy processes to be applied within the sector going forwards. Renewed efforts to combat climate change have lately been echoed on a much broader scale too, with US President Joe Biden committing the US to slash emissions by half by the end of the decade, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging world leaders to "get serious" ahead of United Nations (UN) climate talks later this year. While such calls for environmental action appear to be getting louder, the failure of both government and industry leaders to match their words with action when it comes to sustainability is unfortunately nothing new. In a similar vein, while additive manufacturing is often considered a more sustainable manufacturing technology than others, according to 85 per cent of respondents to a survey by 3D printing software provider Materialise, there is an industry consensus that more must be done to avoid greenwashing the technology. "There is no doubt that heaps of these initiatives are not genuinely solving any real issues in terms of sustainability and are merely offering more efficient material use," says Fromberg. "However, it is often done with the best intentions." Circularity refers to an economic system to eliminate waste and the continual use of resources. The need for further research into how this concept can be fully applied within the 3D printing sector has been highlighted by researchers from the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (UNIDEMI), who believe greater open-source collaboration between industry partners could eventually provide new methods of addressing the UN's sustainability goals with the technology 3D printing has proven effective in recent years at enabling companies to embrace distributed production, and this in itself comes with environmental benefits such as improved process efficiency, less waste, and reduced emissions from transportation. However, despite these efficiency benefits, there is a growing industry consensus that far more needs to be done to improve the sustainability of the technology than is currently underway. One notion receiving increasing attention is that of the circular economy, and the role 3D printing can play in achieving circularity within manufacturing. "As explained in the work on Cradle to Cradle by Braungart and McDonough: sustainability is not about doing less bad – we need to look at how we can do well," says Fromberg. "It is a narrow focus to only look at the efficiency and agility of production only. We are then just using less energy and fewer materials. Ongoing circular economy projects within AM Within the 3D printing sector alone, there are various initiatives currently underway to develop closed-loop manufacturing processes that reuse and repurpose waste materials. Within the automotive sector, Groupe Renault is creating a facility entirely dedicated to sustainable automotive production through recycling and retrofitting vehicles using 3D printing, while Ford and HP have teamed up to recycle 3D printing waste into end-use automotive parts. One notable project that is addressing circular economy 3D printing is BARBARA (Biopolymers with Advanced functionalities foR Building and Automotive parts processed through Additive Manufacturing), a Horizon 2020 project that brought together 11 partners from across Europe to produce bio-based materials from food waste suitable for 3D printing prototypes in the automotive and construction sectors. Upon concluding four years of research in October last year, the project successfully developed eight new bio-based materials suitable for fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing, created by extracting natural dyes, bio-mordants, antimicrobials, and essential oils from pomegranate, lemon, almond shell, and corn and processing them into filament spools.

"Additive manufacturing can be used not only for prototypes but also as an opportunity to customize specific pieces," says Redrado Tivoli. "In BARBARA, we have developed aesthetic details to technical parts." BARBARA reached a Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of five in October, and the consortium is currently planning to apply for national and European funding to reach TRL nine, which would involve upscaling the results of molecule extraction, extrusion and filament materials, and developing technology such as the consortium's 3D printing heading device. So far, the initiative has contributed to the growth of related industries within the bio-economy and circular economy European framework, and the next stage will be to scale up the project's processes to a semi-industrial level. "Regarding the circular economy, the use of filament spools means no material waste," Redrado Notivoli continues. "Additive manufacturing is a technology which doesn't consume much energy, we can say it is a clean process. Residues such as plastic and fibres are used for manufacturing new biopolymers, while waste from other plastic transformation processes is reused in the form of pellets for 3D printing." According to RedradoNotivoli, the key benefit for 3D printing companies that embrace circularity within their processes is waste as a resource. "There is no waste," she explains. "It is transformed into resources. This also means the growth of industrial synergies between additive manufacturing companies and others that could be suppliers of resources, such as waste coming from plastic, metal, agriculture, ceramics, and so on. This will imply long-term the reduction of raw material costs."

In addition to the projects mentioned above, substantial work is also underway to develop methods for more sustainable material production and improve the efficiency of related processes. For instance, Amsterdam-based 3D printing filament vendor Reflow has released a range of eco-friendly 'Seaglass' translucent materials made from locally sourced plastics, while Spain-based 3D printing materials producer Recreus has launched a flexible TPU filament that is 100 per cent recycled and made up of waste material from the footwear sector. Elsewhere, circular 3D printing materials have also been developed from more obscure sources, including lignin from plant cell walls, water bottles, landfill-destined waste, and even termite and boring insect refuse.

According to Fromberg, however, focusing on materials efficiency as a stand-alone solution to improving sustainability both within the 3D printing sector and beyond, is not enough. "I would say that it can be counter-productive to overly focus on efficiency in the sustainability debate," she explains. "Why don't we ask ourselves: what do we want more of? I am interested in 3D printing and digital fabrication because it has the unique feature of cutting out large-scale operations and factories as a means of production and gives back individuals and communities a way to engage in the production, repair, and maintenance of their products. "Also in the work of Materiom by Alycia Garmulewicz and Liz Corbyn, there is an interesting field of possibilities opening up around using hyper-local (natural) materials for digital fabrication. All of these ideas together might help us to re-image a resilient and democratic system for production." Reflow's sustainable line of six rPETG(Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol)materials is made from locally-available plastic and inspired by the environment and its "natural and Wild Beauty."

It may be mentioned that the greatest opportunities for successful circular economy implementation is the 3D printing sector and additive manufacturing in general and have the potential to create a "variety of opportunities" for rural areas and emerging economies in particular. The accessibility of means of production and the economic opportunities that are accompanied by the distributed nature of these technologies could have a profound impact on these areas, adding to equality, working conditions, and social fairness. However there are many benefits to urban areas too and the urban regions are beyond just materials efficiency:

Improved circular production and innovation of eco-friendly materials should be encouraged and sustainability in 3d printing or additive manufacturing should be considered for application across all areas of the entire production system which in turn results in effective and tangible changes in the area of sustainable development. It is worth mentioning that Amsterdam based 3D printing filament manufacturer Reflow has released a variety of eco-friendly "Seaglass" translucent materials made from waste plastics whereas the Spain based 3D company "Recreus" has manufacturing flexible filament from 100% waste materials obtained from footwear Industries.

It is now well understood the use of the circular economic model as well as 3D printing may lead to Sustainable Development. As 3D printing used the process of additive manufacturing which does not make any loss to the raw materials unlike the conventional process of manufacturing. Similarly, if the raw materials required for manufacturing may be procured through the process of recycling or reuse of the products then it will also give rise to the two-fold economy which in turn will boost up the process of sustainable livelihood. The concept of circular although seems to be a new one was there in ancient India as our forefathers have given most respect to nature and its products. In ancient people used the materials in such a way there was hardly any wastage left for disposal. Say for example the food wastes which were created from human consumptions were given to the pet animals and that was the concept of Zero Waste which have now termed a Circular Economy. So it is quite evident that when the 3D printing and Circular Economy will work as two sides of the same coin real sustainable development will happen otherwise it will be a delayed process, and the world will become uninhabitable to humans and other animals.