Recycling meal-ready-to-eat (MRE) pouches into polymer filament for material extrusion additive manufacturing

Millions of Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) are consumed annually by soldiers around the world. This results in the generation of thousands of tons of residual polymeric packaging waste, which is either left behind in the environment or otherwise recycled or incinerated at a cost of several millions of U.S. dollars per year. Advancements in distributed recycling technologies now allow for on-demand reconstitution of traditionally neglected MRE pouch waste into useful appliances via material extrusion additive manufacturing. In this work, we demonstrate recycling of MRE pouch materials through a combined compounding, filament extrusion, and fused filament fabrication (FFF) additive manufacturing protocol. Mechanical properties and barrier properties of additively manufactured structures were evaluated through tensile testing and water vapor transmission testing, respectively, and found to be comparable to the native pouch materials. Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Thermogravimetric Analysis of the extruded filament and printed materials were contrasted with native pouch materials, showing minimal effects of the manufacturing process on critical thermal transitions in the polymer. Economics and viability of on-demand reconstitution using these proposed methods are briefly discussed and reveal the multiple benefits of this recycling process.