Glass Recycling Meets 3D Printing, as Vitriform3D Partners with the ORNL
Researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Vitriform3D have announced a joint effort to turn waste glass into a material for 3D-printing building materials and decorative pieces, using a robotic binder-jetting process.
"There's so much glass going into landfills in the US," explains Vitriform3D co-founder Alex Stiles of the reason for picking waste glass as a material. "Glass is infinitely recyclable, but only one-third of glass waste is being recycled. There's a certain grade of sand that is well-suited to make glass. Depending on the location, it's often cheaper for a company to just use that sand than to use recycled glass. [Meanwhile,] if a recycling facility were to get a truckload of glass bottles and it had one coffee mug in it that would shut down their entire production line for a day."
With contamination and cost both problems for the recycling process —...
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