Refil

Better Future Factory and Renewi developed filaments for 3D printers, made of recycled plastic.

Better Future Factory is a Dutch innovation agency that looks for sustainable ways of dealing with plastic waste. With the support of Renewi, they developed filaments for 3D printers, made of recycled plastic. The studio now sells them through its subsidiary Refil.

3D printing has been making headway in recent years. Molten plastic can be used to make a wide variety of objects at a rapid pace. Unfortunately, this plastic often ends up in nature and is made of exhaustible raw materials. That is why Renewi helped a number of young entrepreneurs of Better Future Factory to make filaments for 3D printers from recycled plastics. Through its Coolrec subsidiary, Renewi supplied the plastic for a white filament. The company got this plastic from recycling old refrigerators. The coil around which the filament is wound is also made of recyclable cardboard.

The basis for this initiative was laid some ten years ago. Casper van der Meer, Gaspard Bos and Bart Bleijerveld were asked by TUDelft to come up with a solution for the large amount of waste on the Flevoland Lowlands festival. For this purpose, they designed a shredder that shreds plastic with the help of human muscle power. Festival-goers brought plastic bottles and cups and received plastic jewellery in exchange - made from the waste they had just shredded themselves.

The products printed by Better Future Factory and the recycled filaments themselves became widely known, so the makers decided to establish Refil. That subsidiary sells the recycled filaments made from old car dashboards, recycled soft drink bottles and yoghurt containers and other food packaging. Transport is also limited, because Better Future Factory looks for production partners who are physically as close as possible.

To be sure that no toxic substances are released from the plastics and that they do not deform, Better Future Factory only uses traceable materials that received the REACH and RoHS label.