Hdpe Plastic Bags
HDPE plastic bags are made by crude oil, about 12 million barrels are used per year to meet the demand. Because of what they are made of, if the bags are burned they release major amounts of greenhouse gasses, they also release dangerous chemicals. They will also reduce the productivity of soil if they are carelessly thrown aside. The main reason that plastic bags are used is because their cheap, easy to make, and are safe to store food in.
Plastic bags, when disposed in trash, can take over 1,000 years to decompose. It goes into a landfill, where it will sit for hundreds of years, not decomposing and essentially hurting the environment. Over 46,000 pieces of plastic bags are floating in the ocean, There are six times more plastic than zooplankton in the Pacific Ocean! The amount of plastic bag litter in the ocean could be cut down with our innovative idea.
Having us recycle the bags into filament for 3D printers will help cut down on the trash production dramatically. Melting, not burning, the plastic will not release any toxins or chemicals. Plastic bags will not only help make cheap filament for 3D printers, but cut down on plastic bag littering.
High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is a thermoplastic, a plastic that can be melted and molded repeatedly. If it can pass the three main tests a filament needs to pass for it to print, which include how well it molds into the filament, how accurately it sprays from the nozzle, and its end product performance, then there should be no reason it wouldn't work in a printer. HDPE would most likely meet all of these requirements, and is easy to obtain, as it is the main source of bagging in many grocery and department stores.
