Closing the Loop: Toward Sustainable 3D Print Recycling in the Clinic

Over the past 1-year, clinical 3D printing at our site consisted of 40 patient boluses and 25 electron cutouts, consuming about 6.5kg of PLA. Due to infection control concerns only 35% of this material was eligible for recycling, however 3.5 times that amount was collected from other printing activities. Recycling reduced new filament use by 56% ($470). Recycling workflows proved difficult to streamline and resulted in filament diameter that was marginally outside common industry standards and about 20% less strong but deemed adequate for clinical printing. Although the cost savings analysis indicates a poor return on investment, increasing the scale of the operation would be beneficial. To achieve this, we plan to recycle PLA boluses after disinfection and solicit other clinics in our hospital network and local 3D printing hobbyist community to recycle their prints.