I don’t see this as being any more than a novelty in the consumer retail segment if the existing printer model for consumables is followed. The real profit center is the toner cartridges and not the printer itself.
The same thing will happen with feedstock for these 3D printers, rendering any output uneconomical. Better encourage an open source means of providing usable plastics. The “green” angle might be of some use even if it’s a sort of subterfuge.
This will have the effect of preventing the price of the 3D printer unit itself from falling to really accessible, cheap levels, but that itself would be a subterfuge as it is with computer printers. Or cell phones, for that matter.
The same thing will happen with feedstock for these 3D printers, rendering any output uneconomical. Better encourage an open source means of providing usable plastics. The “green” angle might be of some use even if it’s a sort of subterfuge.
This will have the effect of preventing the price of the 3D printer unit itself from falling to really accessible, cheap levels, but that itself would be a subterfuge as it is with computer printers. Or cell phones, for that matter.
Or, as the original post says...
Recycle Old Plastic Bottles Into Filament
There are people working on ways to lower the cost of filament using do-it-yourself extruders like the Filabot that can make filament out of recyclable plastics. Imagine grinding up an old soda bottle and feeding it into your own extruder to produce a 3D model.
Already being done.
EVEN IF it's a subterfuge?? Get something you need while screwing the green weenies? Sound like winning the, er, double crown to me.