3D printed products through cartridges of waste

Hi there folks!

I´m the president of Civil Society Organization of Public Interest (OSCIP) here in Brasil.
A Corporation with qualification and autorization of the Justice Ministry to create not-for-profit projects
of Education and Wellbeign for communities aroud all the country.

With many researchs we discover a lack of disposal services, manly for toxic waste in large industries
like explosive ones. There is no interest to create cooperatives because of the difficulty of transportation
and to get autorizations from the army. In the other hand we have a lot of poor and middle class teenagers
with lack of vocation couses and professional perspective in developing communities.

We want to technify this youngs, so here comes my first question: Do you think it is possible to
create a training method for 3d printing, for seasonal courses, with young people before College?

The second question is, what kind of material can be used as cartridges? In what form, because
we need to discover how to get to this species of components (or similar) with less processes and
cheapest as possible through garbage and waste.

Because we are a kind of NGO we have access to some government organs, we have something called SENAI -
National Service in Learning for Industries...while we talk about the fun stuff in this emails that are coming,
probably i talk with then to try some line of research to the cartridges.

Cheers.

For the feedstock, you can shred jugs (used for milk, orange juice, etc.) made out of high-density polyethylene (usually called HDP or HDPE). I assume these are common in Brazil. If not, you can probably find them in other products. If you have access to large-scale manufacturing waste, you can probably get as much of it as you want. Thoroughly wash and flatten the material, run it through a confetti shredder (the kind you use to destroy junk mail from credit card companies) to turn it into tiny flakes, and then feed it into a FilaStruder, which only costs a few hundred US$. That is a bit of expense up front, but you can save significant money in the long run. There is more information here: [3dprint.com]

Other things you can shred and print with: ABS (used in the manufacture of all kinds of things), PLA (commonly used in food containers and other things), POM (acetal), polycarbonate, etc. Some people print with weed trimmer line (made from nylon). There are also composite filaments with things like wood and metal in them. These usually require hardened steel nozzles to print with, and they may not be possible to create with a FilaStruder without wrecking it.

You should have no trouble finding pre-college students who want to work with 3D printing. I would have loved to have access to something like this in high school. You can find a curriculum and some community support here at SeeMeEducate: [forum.seemecnc.com]

All nations will need a labor force with strong 3D printing skills going into the 2020s, as the technology continues to develop, and slowly begins to replace traditional manufacturing methods. It is fairly primitive now, like television in the '40s to '60s, with a lot of kit-built models out there. As more technology is developed in open source, and more patents expire, the market will get bigger. I believe that it will eventually become essential, as AI and robotics will continue to displace more and more workers, and we will have to find new ways to provide for ourselves. Giving end users the power to create their own things where they live is a piece needed to solve this puzzle. It will be essential in large population centers in the future, and it can benefit poor and rural communities right now. Building these programs out now can only help your country in the future.