Recycling plastic waste is crucial for reducing environmental harm and conserving resources. However, current methods face challenges, such as the need to sort different polymers, limited compatibility across plastic types, and reliance on hazardous chemicals in chemical recycling. This study introduces a sustainable additive manufacturing approach by repurposing commonly discarded thermoplastics, including polylactic acid (PLA), polyamide (PA), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and 3D-printed thermosets, as feedstock for digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing. Using cryogenic milling, these polymers are transformed into fine powders and incorporated into a photocurable resin to create polymeric composites.
Recycling Commodity Plastic Waste for Vat Photopolymerization 3D Printing of High-Performance Polymeric Composites
