Recycled filament: what it is and what to expect from printing

What it is made from

Most often it is PET from bottles (the result is often rPETG) or PLA from offcuts and failed prints. The waste is ground, cleaned, dried, melted and pushed out into strands with a diameter of 1.75 mm. You can read about how recycling works in general and why it is complicated for plastics on Wikipedia.

Not all recycled material is the same. Some is pure remelted waste of a single material, some is a mix with pigments and additives. You often cannot tell from the spool packaging, so with this kind of filament it pays to check the brand and the data sheet.

What it is like to print

Good recycled filament prints almost like new PLA or PETG. The worse part is that quality varies between batches: the diameter of the strand, the colour and the willingness to hold layers together can all differ. Dark and mixed shades tend to have a less clean surface, because different sources are blended.

For parts that have to carry a load, hold an exact dimension or go to a customer as a product, consistent quality matters more than where the plastic came from. For prototypes, mock-ups and decorations it hardly matters.

Is it really more eco-friendly

Partly, yes: new plastic is not made and the waste does not end up in a landfill. But you should know that the resulting part is then hard to recycle again. Waste PLA also does not belong in the PET bottle stream, because it spoils it, as this overview of plastic recycling also explains.

The biggest benefit to nature comes from a part that is not thrown away after a week. A well designed, sturdy piece that lasts for years is more ecological than a cheap recycled one that is used once.

What we offer

We print in PLA (€8 per kg) and PETG (€9 per kg), which is only the material share of the price. We do not offer recycled filament as a separate option. If it matters to you, write to jakub.novak@boostello.com, but we cannot promise to print it. We do not sell filament, so you cannot buy it from us.

Recycled vs new filament: how to choose

If you need a part with exact dimensions, for example one that fits into another part, allow for slightly more variation with recycled filament than with new. For visual parts with a clear colour, new filament is the safer choice, because recycled material often differs in shade between two spools.

The most common reason people want recycled filament is the feeling that they are printing more responsibly. Other things help too: not designing parts bigger than they need to be, not wasting supports and not making too many test pieces. That is why you see the price and weight before ordering, so you know in advance how much material the part will use.