I am a bit horrified by my ever increasing collection of empty or near-empty filament spools.
If 3D printing becomes as popular as it is meant to, then they will be rivalling coffee cups.
It would be great if they could be reused like printer cartridges, ideally if there was a standard design so they could return to any manufacturer.
Or even better, how about cardboard spools? We used to get BIG rolls of wire on cardboard spools, sometimes but not always with a sheet metal spindle. A cardboard one would be fine for filament.
I have a PLA spool that disassembled with a bit of wangling, by carefully paring down the clips it can be easily assembled and disassembled. Ideal for short lengths of special filament, but I'd be happy to get 1kg packs of filament in a vacuum pack and slip them onto this spool, or perhaps one with a slightly smaller spindle (to make assembly a bit easier).
Yes I can throw them in the domestic recycling bin, but has anyone come up with more creative ways of recycling them.
They don't seem to bear recycling symbols so I am not sure what plastic they are. has anyone tried shredding them and making filament out of them (which would be a neat trick!)
