... forum dedicated to environmental aspects ... https://reprap.org/forum/list.php?425 Fri, 12 Jun 2026 07:44:22 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,897557,897557#msg-897557 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,897557,897557#msg-897557 Fila-Pet green talk Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:54:50 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,891079,891079#msg-891079 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,891079,891079#msg-891079 which knows how to collect garbage from the ocean.
autonomously or by control through a satellite connection
and reproduce itself by shredding the garbage and printing part of it.
So the cleaning capacity will double every unit of time]]> yaniv green talk Sun, 20 Nov 2022 05:48:25 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,890292,890292#msg-890292 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,890292,890292#msg-890292
This lead me to come up with higher specifications for tolerances & surface quality than the original, open source brick tooling designed by Precious Plastic. However I was determined that the geometry of their brick was still suitable for formwork, with the addition of a compression step, and more precise (machined rather than welded) parts.

As a result I started work late last year in building a PrintNC specced to my project, with hardware that I am familiar with (Duet). This week, using steel I milled and cut on the PrintNC I was able to produce my first "early production brick"*.

The mould's design is simple to replicate, costs less than $300aud, $200usd, 170gbp, etc. and can produce bricks without additional tooling, with nothing more than your body weight and some** heat.

I'm seeking feedback on the project, and hopefully some people interested in replicating it.

*that didn't break into pieces as I demoulded it.

**understatement.

I've uploaded the current design here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5467974

[attachment 119681 screenshot.1622-Copy-text.jpg]

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[attachment 119680 arnold-render-006a2.jpg]]]> MortarArt green talk Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:14:11 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,888449,888449#msg-888449 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,888449,888449#msg-888449
Long time reader, first time poster.

Few years ago I started experimenting with converting plastic scrap into usable 3D printer filament at home and today, I'm publishing a guide about that.

Cheap and home scaled focused. The process consists in sorting and cleaning plastic pieces taken from defective household appliances, grinding them to small granules, and feed those granules to a home made small extrusion line. After a quick post-processing step, the output filament can be used by a 3D printer to print new objects.

This is far away from being perfect but maybe some useful infos could be found inside the guide for those who are in the same kind of research.

Everything inside is open source.

If you feel like taking a look, here are 2 links :
[www.thingiverse.com]
[www.instructables.com]

I'm happy to share thought about it,
Have a good day,]]> Nezo green talk Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:56:25 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,887360,887360#msg-887360 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,887360,887360#msg-887360 Sensor.Community), that could provide monitoring of the following factors:

- Humidity
- Barometric pressure
- Ambient temperature
- Detecting of a broad range of gases such as volatile organic compounds (VOC)
- Measurement of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3)
- Environmental noise measurement
- Particulate Matter measurement and differentiation of PM2.5, PM10, smoke, pollen etc.
- UV radiation

Etc.

So far, have 2 node versions. The first one uses Sensirion Particulate Matter Sensor SPS30. The second is intended to use a custom particulate matter sensor. Attached some pictures. The project is going kind of slow, due to issues with sourcing components. As well as would need help about the development of a web site, map, representation of data etc. Anyone interested in such project ?

[attachment 118962 ESP32_sensor.jpg] [attachment 118963 sensor_mini.jpg]]]> Dev00 green talk Thu, 09 Dec 2021 09:16:33 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,860514,860514#msg-860514 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,860514,860514#msg-860514
One of the measures that Material Extrusion systems beat Photopolymer systems is handling of the excess, waste, reject, and raw material. There are services available to collect and recycle unwanted PLA, PETG, etc. As far as I am aware waste from photocured resin systems is landfill when fully cured and hazardous in its raw form.

I would like to have a go with using a support material, but I am concerned about how the waste product is handled. With Disolvable supports it seems that the waste is classed as chemical waste and there is no one looking into recivering the dissolved material and making it re-usable.

Have I missed something?]]> WesBrooks green talk Fri, 11 Oct 2019 17:40:27 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,860013,860013#msg-860013 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,860013,860013#msg-860013 So I've always had a side interest in power generation. Specifically renewable energy, not so much for the hippie aspect of it but because it seems like a fun "puzzle" to work within the constraints renewable sources impose (reliability, accessibility etc.). Anyways, here's the idea.

You can build a sea wall extending from the shore and encapsulating a section of water. Water flows in during high tide, and during low tide it can be allowed to flow out through turbines to generate electricity same as a hydroelectric dam. I suppose you could generate electricity as it flows in, but the flow is much slower and more irregular, so I'm not sure it will work well or be worth it. This can have the disadvantage of only working while the tide is out, but if you build a second reservoir like this and let it drain during low tide,during high tide you'll be able to let water flow from the first reservoir to this one to generate electricity during high tide. This second reservoir can be smaller since it will only be used some of the time

A couple of things I find interesting about this idea is that:

You essentially create an artificial estuary(?) or giant tide pool. I don't think this is super damaging to the environment? I could be wrong, but seems like a perfect environment for many fish etc.
It would be pretty regular and reliable as a power source, the tides come in and out whether it is rain or shine, calm or windy. Plus it has the same built in energy storage mechanism as hydroelectric dams, unlike solar/wind which need separate energy storage for their off hours.
It scales well, due to the square law, the volume of water you encapsulate (and therefore your energy generation potential) grows faster than the length of the wall. Double the length of the wall, quadruple your energy capacity.
I'm pretty sure it's feasible, there's an entire country in Europe that relies on similar structures to stay dry.

Plus, I don't think people would mind it very much. Open up the top of the sea wall to the public like a pier, turn it into an attraction. If that doesn't work tell them it's an anti shark defence wall. Or that it'll keep the Mexicans out. Lots of creative uses you can use to sell it to politicians.
This only works on the shore, but hey it's something. If you're super committed and have money to burn you can bore a hole and bring the sea inland. More realistically maybe move power generation seaside and use HVDC transition to take it inland?

I personally think localised energy generation and storage should be a big part of the future. It's much easier and less harmful to slap a wind turbine on every roof than clear a large section of land to make a wind farm. Even more effective in areas that build out rather than up. A lot of things I think are more efficient and easier on a localised per house basis, especially energy storage.]]> Trakyan green talk Sun, 29 Sep 2019 01:27:05 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,850170,850170#msg-850170 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,850170,850170#msg-850170
[web.de]

[www.spiegel.de]]]> VDX green talk Wed, 13 Nov 2024 08:18:07 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,849934,849934#msg-849934 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,849934,849934#msg-849934
3-4 years ago I had a filastruder + filawinder. Which I never got working because the spooling was simply not working.

Imho there needs to be a feedback loop between filament diameter and the spooling unit like it is done in industrial machines.

There were some attempt rigging a digital caliper to provide the measurement but I still not even Filabot has such a feedback loop for sale.

Is there anyone who has recently seen something similar?]]> sungod3k green talk Tue, 10 Aug 2021 04:39:57 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,848743,848743#msg-848743 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,848743,848743#msg-848743 Soeben bin ich dabei mir einen Rasenmäher Roboter zu bauen.
Bin Pensionist und es leid jede Woche einmal mehrere Stunden hinter dem nach Benzin stinkenden Rasenmäher herzulaufen.
Also drucke ich mir auf meinen 3-D Druckern meinen eigenen Rasenmäher aus und möchte ihn auch mit Sonnenenergie oder Windenergie betreiben.
Was haltet Ihr davon? -
Oder macht das schon jemand?
Wenn ja , dann lass doch einmal lesen- ! Danke und
LG Georgio]]> Georgio.Ferlini green talk Thu, 07 Mar 2019 16:07:41 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,846533,846533#msg-846533 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,846533,846533#msg-846533

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Then another suggestion from me to bring larger quantities to the surface:

- 4 or more ships (or rafts/islands) can drop a folded net, conned with ropes between the ships (net as large as possible - hundreds of meters?) to shortly above the seabed ... let it roll out there ... and pull it up so slowly that fish and other mobile sea creatures have the opportunity to escape ... so that they do not have to swim through the entire net, there should be larger gaps in the net at regular intervals as "emergency exits" ...

When the net is lowered, the collapsed net and the carrying ropes pass through the drifting garbage without major turbulence - and the ships can also be close to each other ... only when pulling up and "stretching" the net they should then move away from each other.

Here are a few thoughts:
- the folding up (collapsing) and later unfolding of the net can be done similarly to a parachute
- the required mesh size and number/arrangement of the "emergency exit holes" can only be determined with the first tests
- if the net is already filled with garbage, the "mesh size" becomes smaller and smaller and also the "emergency exit holes" could get blocked
- instead of ships, larger "swimming bladders" inflated with compressed air (or gas from chemical reaction) could also provide buoyancy
- instead of huge nets also many smaller ones could bring up the "small stuff" with then possible finer meshes
- ...]]> VDX green talk Tue, 20 Aug 2024 08:39:51 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,838044,838044#msg-838044 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,838044,838044#msg-838044
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Thoughts on the project "Floating islands in the garbage continents".

Status: - in all oceans of the world "garbage whirlpools" have formed, in which huge quantities of floating garbage accumulate due to the ocean currents.
The largest are located in the Pacific - here there are two "garbage vortices", one in the direction of Australia, one in the direction of South America.
The "size" of the largest would roughly correspond to the extent of Central Europe, i.e. over 1000 kilometres in diameter!
The current amount of waste in the oceans is estimated at about 150 million tons, but this could still be far understated ...


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Collection of ideas from other projects:
- collecting floating garbage on the surface, creating it on land and separating it and recycling it (project "The Ocen Clean-up" does this as a test)
Criticism: only floating garbage on the surface, ways to and from the country take very long

- Stop waste discharge from rivers into the seas - is already being tackled by some countries, most still superior or do nothing at all

- Fishing boats should not dump the "garbage by-catch" in the nets back into the sea, but collect it separately and hand it in for a "deposit" in the harbours - some of them already go out only for the "garbage" ...

- Various project to clean up the sea coasts ...

- Dutch build floating platforms for houses and greenhouses instead of building higher dams to protect the coastal areas from rising sea levels -- works only in river mouths and in protected coastal areas, not on the open sea (storm and too high waves)

- Project "Seasteading" wants to build "floating cities" in harbours and "quiet" coastal areas - "ring walls" as protection against waves, only conditionally "seaworthy" -- initially only planned as "sea domiciles" for rich and super-rich ...


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Difference of the project "Floating islands in the garbage continents"
- first of all, large ships (discarded container ships and freighters, which are currently available at the "scrap price" because commercial shipping has collapsed) are to be used as "bases" with plants and machinery for plastic recycling and "charring", as well as equipment and facilities for large-scale construction with sufficiently large crews for a long-term/"permanent" stay to the "garbage continents", and on site (without long arrival/departure times) begin to build large/thick floating structures.

- From these large/thick (several tens to a hundred meters in size, several tens of meters in thickness/height) elements, even larger "rafts" are then to be assembled, which, due to their size/mass and stability, can themselves withstand storms and waves up to a height of more than 30m, and which, in combination, are also to serve as "breakwaters" for structures built further inside.

- these "base" elements should not be built like ships with walls and cavities, but rather as massive bodies with many small cavities for buoyancy - it is ideal if they are so heavy and have so much buoyancy that they float e.g. at a size of 100x100 meters and 50 meters thickness half (or more) in the water and half (or less) above it - on top of this more "sensitive" structures such as houses can be built.

- as building material all possible stable solid bodies are suitable, which in turn do not give off any plastic when crushed over time (sun, waves, collisions, ...) - e.g. stones, sand, (sand). Stones, sand, (coral) lime, plant/tang fibre, glass fibre, metal wires and rods (for connection/tensioning), glass hollow spheres (for buoyancy), solid material extracted from the plastic waste and chemically converted (inert) such as coal ...
Plant resins - e.g. lignin, which is currently a waste product in paper manufacturing and could later also be obtained from trees/plants and tan/seagrass planted on/around the islands - are suitable as binders to combine this into a stable, concrete-like mass (see e.g. polymer concrete for highly stable industrial plants, which is made up of sand, gravel and cast resin/polymer).

- over time, marine biotopes (coral reefs, etc.) will also form around the islands, or should also be created themselves (e.g. as a raw material source for coral limestone or fish for food supply).

- Energy production on site by sun, wind, waves, current, temperature differences, evaporation, ...

- with sufficient energy more than enough drinking water can be obtained from the sea water - but also salt and from the salt practically all known materials/chemicals of the chemical elements dissolved in the sea water, which can be extracted and separated e.g. by chemical/galvanic processes ...

- on these first "rafts" even more stable material can be "built up" over time in order to extend them to "real" floating islands with enough mass/carrying capacity and size for a permanent planting with trees and plants (also for food supply).
Over time, this could also allow "floating continents" with a diverse structure with coast/inside areas and also large inland freshwater lakes or saltwater inland seas (down to the ocean open or filtered).

- for the garbage drifting in the sea, below the surface (or already sunk on the ground), methods for collecting have to be developed - in the beginning with ships/rafts as "supply bases" an armada of smaller (autonomous) boats, drones and submarines has to be built, from which even smaller submarine threats launch and expose "micro-drones" near underwater garbage whose only task is to "cling" to the garbage and inflate "swim bladders" with which the garbage drifts to the surface and can be conventionally collected there...


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Political implications:
- Artificial islands" outside the 200-kilometer EEZ areas around the coastlines are located in a "lawless" space where only maritime and international law still applies - so completely independent rules and legal structures or even "nationalities" can emerge on them!

- This would also be an opportunity to offer alternative housing to the currently "sinking" micro-nations that inhabit small islands that will be flooded by rising sea levels within the next decades -- currently several of these micro-nations have already started negotiations with other countries to accommodate their populations there.

- because of this "lawless" environment one has to think about the protection of the islands against e.g. pirates or attacks of other nations - in the beginning this would be done with mercenaries/protection troops and contracts with countries on the nearer mainland or neighbouring "islands" - later this should be regulated by the own population in the form of volunteers or also "conscription" ...


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Ideas for implementation and for the "start", step-by-step expansion:
- Make idea known, win supporters, donations and active members
- Assemble equipment - ships, life support/supply/energy, plastics processing/recycling/carbonisation, building materials and equipment, ...
- Start projects" with smaller ships near the coast over a few weeks/months as pre-exercise and "show-case" for the interested parties and media
- Long-term projects" with volunteers over several months/years with larger ships and construction teams/facilities directly in the "garbage maelstrom".
- Building ever larger "rafts" to demonstrate seaworthiness and long-term stability and to increase the processing capacity for the collected waste.
- Creation of the first "self-sufficient" raft/island structures with production of energy, food and building materials on site
- ...]]> VDX green talk Tue, 12 Oct 2021 15:26:56 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,834665,834665#msg-834665 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,834665,834665#msg-834665
Although 3D-printing wouldn't be economic for large-scale production, I'm also wondering about 3D-printing a proof-of-concept flat mesh, which can then be "popped out" into a 3D bag... a fairly rigid square (or other shape) for the bottom, and around it mesh sides, maybe something like the 3D-printed chain-mail? How would I go about designing a 2D shape like that?]]> frankvdh green talk Wed, 03 Oct 2018 03:01:32 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,833794,833794#msg-833794 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,833794,833794#msg-833794 nano-lenses.

IMHO most of the photons 'miss' their target in a silicon-wafer and only increase temperature.
If it's possible to focus the photons 'to the right place' in the silicon molecule-grid, we'd see increased efficiency over a wider temp-range.

Thought it was worth mentioning it here, since we have a Nanotec-expert on board...]]> o_lampe green talk Fri, 14 Dec 2018 05:44:30 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,833451,833451#msg-833451 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,833451,833451#msg-833451
"Parley for the Oceans" - [www.parley.tv]

"The Ocean Cleanup" - [www.theoceancleanup.com]

"Meere ohne Plastik" - [www.nabu.de]

"Robot Missions" - [www.robotmissions.org]]]> VDX green talk Mon, 29 Jul 2024 04:54:39 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,833225,833225#msg-833225 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?425,833225,833225#msg-833225
... I've started this first in the German forum -- but, as the problem is "global", we should perhaps also address it "globally" ...

Here is the link to the German thread - [reprap.org]


And here the English transscription of the starter:

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Hello folks,

I've been looking at the discussions and projects to reduce the amount of garbage in the oceans for quite some time, but I think that the previous concepts are still far too few in terms of results and are anyway focused only on the "visible" surface areas, which is actually already far too much sad smiley

My question to the group - is there any interest worth mentioning here and maybe already a willingness to get actively involved in really "long-term" and also "radical" projects - and above all to stay involved for years?

With the RepRap project we also started 12 years ago as a small project (about 15 people in the "core team" when I joined), which then in a few years became a worldwide action cool smiley

There are already a few interesting approaches to "marine waste disposal", but none of them are yet really capable of preventing the still increasing amount of waste entering the oceans or significantly reducing the actual amount of waste in the foreseeable future eye rolling smiley

Meanwhile 5 "garbage continents" have been confirmed in the oceans, where the free floating garbage on the surface collects in gigantic "whirlpools" - the largest in the Pacific might be as big as Central Europe or 3 - 5 times as big as Germany!

And that is only the visible part!

From the surface to the seabed at a depth of several kilometres there is much more floating in the water ... and on the seabed there might be another similar amount lying around. It is slowly covered by silt, but can still actively release toxins into the water ...

I have some ideas for "Starter-Projects", which like the RepRap-Project could provide a sustainable garbage collection in small groups "locally" off the coasts for the first time ... but in the long run should lead to the creation of permanently occupied "garbage collection islands" across the oceans, which in turn should be built up from the material of the garbage collected and continue to grow.

What is necessary for the start are interested people and groups of people, in order to start as "germ cells" and then accumulate enough new people, interest (and also money) over the time, so that this can become a really long-term and effective movement!

I have already asked Adrian, NaBu, Greenpeace and an active German project, but so far I haven't received an answer ...]]> VDX green talk Tue, 02 Jul 2019 05:24:53 -0400