• peregrin5@lemm.eeEnglish
    81·
    1 day ago

    What each individual defines as garbage is up to them. I’m certain there are very very few people who are literally printing garbage on purpose with their 3D printers.

    And again the scale of waste is like 2 trillion to 1 comparing corporations to independent hobbyists 3D printing parts.

    Being able to 3D print also allows one to repair things that otherwise would just have to be tossed in a landfill because some critical plastic piece broke.

    And it allows users to create their own one-off objects that they need rather than a corporation creating an immense surplus of parts the majority of which will never reach consumer hands and will end up in a landfill.

    Taking offense at people who 3D print for being bad for the environment is just concern trolling at this point.

    • howrar@lemmy.caEnglish
      6·
      1 day ago

      And it allows users to create their own one-off objects that they need rather than a corporation creating an immense surplus of parts the majority of which will never reach consumer hands and will end up in a landfill.

      This is key. You can 3D print things to fit your exact needs. Mass produced injection molded plastic is only cheap because of the mass production. Molds are expensive. That means they necessarily have to produce a lot more than people need and market them to people who don’t actually need the item in order to make up for the upfront cost.