this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
706 points (99.9% liked)

Science Memes

11047 readers
3618 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Ah so the finishing work. Makes sense.

E: Reading about PLA specifically, it appears to be compostable. Also burning it doesn't produce nasty byproducts. So perhaps 3D printing with PLA isn't that bad, of one takes care of the excess.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's compostable in the same way that taco bell is mexican food; you have to add a lot of qualifiers before anyone will agree with you.

As far as regular people are concerned, pla isn't being composted.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

That was a really frustrating little factoid for me to learn. I think 3D printing can be an amazing hobby, but the safety bits aren't really discussed until you bring up resin! If we find a good way to break down PLA, or heck invent a compostable plastic, it would go a long way.

I still feel stupid breathing so close to my PLA printer while it was operating as I was trying to troubleshoot stuff. Gah.

The printers can be bought for dirt cheap, but decent enclosures and ventilation are still seldom talked about and turnkey solutions seem to still require the resources of a university department or popular influencer.