PET bottles are notoriously bad for the environment. On average, one plastic bottle takes 450 years to decompose. Recycling can also be tricky; bottles need to be cleaned thoroughly and could be shipped abroad for recycling through carbon-heavy transport. It paints a bleak picture. But there are practical options, especially for at-home print enthusiasts eager to utilize their waste and turn everyday trash into useful objects. One 3D printing creative has used PET as a material for their 3D printing.

In a video posted on Reddit and Instagram, a maker uses a plastic bottle slicer (a smart tool that cuts up plastic bottles into ribbons) and then uses these strips to create filament, winding them around large spools. The mechanism used to make the printable filament appears to be a “pullstruder”, which pulls the flat thread through a heater, rolling it up and spooling it onto a spool. There are other ways of shredding the bottles – one user posted a YouTube explainer on using a sharp knife – what’s important is that the plastic is strong.

In the original video, you can see how tough that plastic filament really is. After putting it through the 3D printers, it turns into a small box with several compartments used to stash screws and nuts.

The maker of the video, Function3D, has created their own unique “pullstruder” and published the code and instructions on GitHub. To assemble the machine, Function3D has created tutorial videos available to watch as a continuous playlist on TikTok.

While we’re aware of the potential for 3D printing at home to be wasteful – we’re thinking failed prints and support structures – this cool project shows the potential to effectively utilize waste products in the hobby. So, rather than heading out to the stores to buy those small plastic boxes you inevitably end up breaking anyway, why not just print them with plastic waste?