You don't have much positive to say about home made filament, but there are lots of positive stories on the net of people who are having success with home extruders. The commercial machines use more complex techniques to produce large volumes of filament quickly. This isn't such an issue for a smaller machine where you are likely willing to wait the hour it takes to produce a kilo of filament. Filastruder seems to be doing well and there are companies around selling PLA and ABS pellets used for producing your own filaments. You can produce filament for as low as $6-$8 per kg which makes it an attractive prospect. It also gives you the advantage of being able to make the amount of filament you need in a certain colour rather than having to buy 1kg at a time. Maybe you could review the Filastruder for us and see what your opinion is after some hands on experience?
Most probably don't know, but in Germany there's this really "Pfand", so basically if you return the bottle, (glass, reused bottles or recycled bottles) you get 15-25ct. Really helps, and many people that don't want to do this just leave the bottle next to a garbage bin, and some homeless person can get a few cents. Some do this on a large scale at events, and can actually live decently.
There's essentially a point where two factors have to converge to make the recycled plastic filament business model viable. First, the end product has to be comparable to existing competing products (new filament). The consistency/purity of the material has to be such that printer settings can be set for reliable, consistent print results like all new material filaments. We are assuming that's covered by the sorting and processing of recycled materials. The second factor is cost of end product. Naturally, this Kickstarter program is a testbed project, so we are looking at a cost ineffective product, but looking at a long term, much larger scale commercial level industry, the end product could feasibly be sold for the same price as all new material. At that point, the real incentive for using recycled is because it's recycled and better for the environment be reducing the production of new materials while simultaneously reducing landfill material that doesn't readily break down. It still takes money, time and energy to reprocess used materials, meaning if the cost of producing recycled filament is the same as the cost of producing all new material filament, again, the only advantage the manufacturer is looking at is reducing landfill waste and introducing less new plastic material into the environment overall. Realistically speaking, until those two factors converge, we probably won't be seeing large scale recycled filament operations in action. Lastly, the other issue when it comes to reclaiming used plastic is ideally you'll be sorting out new used plastic as opposed to plastic buried in a landfill that has been exposed to UV radiation for an indeterminate amount of time that has begun the slow process of decomposition. Dirt and chemical exposure can similarly create variances in decomposition rates, making the sorting process key, again, prioritizing (maybe even limited to) recently discarded plastic. But that's all just speculation. A closer look at the plastic bottle recycling industry used in the production of more bottles or perhaps filler/packing materials would probably answer a lot of these issues. Turning third world plastic waste into usable building materials might be a better endeavor than making printer filament.
Yeah, bricks made with shredded plastics as a kind of cellulose binder would be more viable until we have drones capable of collecting, sorting, and cleaning plastics using few resources and high accuracy. Until then virgin filament is necessary for reliable extrusion printing. Extrusion printing could become obsolete before all of this happens.
This is great! I'm willing to back this project - this is a way to make a change for the better. If we think of new ways to use waste materials, everyone wins.
Just a nice little fyi: The whole thing about the plastic being different ages etc can be solved with a machine At high temps in a low pressure nitrogen atmosphere the flakes/pellets need to be kept for like 12 hours. A machine that does that costs around 5 million $ - that is after you've built the machine that produces, washes and sorts the flakes by color etc
I think the idea of creating a market for recycled products is great! I also agree that we will eventually be mining our landfills for the plastic and metals we have buried in the past. We are already using the methane generated in landfills to power homes in some states. The goal should always be zero waste and we have to continue to innovate.
I really reflow. I contacted them and once they are done they are sending me a roll to do a review on. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I really hope in the future all filaments will be 50% or more recycled and some smount of virgin plastic just for good quiality.
Personally I've always felt you are right with home recycling. It just doesn't work. However on a large scale sure it would be an awesome idea. Recycled bottles had its fair share of criticism when it first started and now it's on a global scale. Great work this week Angus. Loved all the videos.
Only thermoplast plastic can be recycled. However, it needs more than just collecting and squeezing through a nozzle. It needs the chemistry to make them flexible and durable again. This involves solvents and thermal processing which goes far beyond what a small company may achieve. Nevertheless, it is a noble way of thinking and the right direction to move.
Recycling is a good thing. The way I see it this recycled plastic should be advertised as so. It could be used for support material, very rapid and early prototyping and other uses where quality isn't thaaaaat important.
3D printing needs consistent quality material. And anyway, the virgin is granulate is about $6 or so per Kg, recycled filament will not be cheaper. Recycled PET might work if the waste material comes from ONE source. For collected waste, no chance! There will be contamination with LDPE/HDPE, plus labels, inks etc. The people get probably paid by weight, so cutting down and sorting generates more money for the collectors. I would sort it as good as I can and re-grind it, and then mix it into some lower-end plastic products. That is how plastics are usually recycled.
Mining for materials from scrap are already a thing for many years in many countries. just that it doesn't receive much attentions from the public. However the filament is way too expensive, it is even more expensive than cheaper bands that proven to provide acceptable print quality. there is very little to no economical reason to buy a roll of inconsistent quality filament. I imagine they need to mix certain (high) percentage of virgin plastic into the mixture in order to improve the consistency, just like what the manufacturers already doing with a lot of the plastic products. That being said, i probly wont try to use filament that made this way, a slight impurity could really screw up your hotend.
You should do these videos more often, I enjoy them. I backed them, its $30ish dollars, if nothing comes out of it i can afford to lose it :P and its for a decent cause heh The manufacturer (whos name you couldn't remember) from the video was MakerGeeks
I would love to see commercial recycled polymer filaments like ABS and metalloids. I worry about other environmental pollutants that would be necessary for the extraction process.
I very much enjoyed these videos. Regarding recycling, I would think an approach that started locally for the company and then expanded would be something I would back. This way, all can learn close to home and then optimize for the remote areas. I'd be interested in efforts that focused on the local schools and got all the school children / teachers to use recycled/participate. I'd also donate to that. Thank you for your excellent videos.
My zany Idea for recycling plastic is bottles used as plumbing. Very little change cut top and bottom of the bottles, a set of added thread and uniform size would make unlimited pipe. Plumbing infrastructure is one of the biggest drawbacks in the third world. What if it didn’t cost anything to fix it?
Plastics must be recycled much more - on a local scale - see preciousplastics.com - you take a plastic into your community - it's your responsibility to recycle it - doesn't always need to be 3D print filament quality - look at your mono plastic moulded chairs or any other plastic as a resource or as a moulded product. Reclaim the means of production by the individual.
+Maker's Muse I can't wait for the review of the Malyan M150 3D Printer. I definitely want to get one. Just want to see your review before I do. Keep up the amazing work Angus!
hey Angus, recycling plastics is still a great idea. but not to produce filament, except if it's your own printer waste if you are a serious recycler. But waste plastics can make so much other sheet materials or objects. Check preciousplastics.com out. there's videos of 3d fully working printed extrusion molds. 3d printing can be a part of the whole recycling thing if you think as a maker and not only as a 3d printer guy. ;)
I don't know about making filament but I once worked in a Plastic company and they recycled the plastic over and over and over mixed with new material. So it's great for some kinds of injection molded products but for your home printer?...
Once the plastic has gone through the downcycling phase and reused, we will end up with something which can't be reprocessed into new material. At that point we will end up with piles of the stuff all over again. I think we need to end our love affair with plastic altogether and find something else more environmentally agreeable.
Maker's Muse thanks! I've been using cnc, but recently got on the trinus campaign (after seeing your review). I should qualify my statements better. Hdpe is great for making patties of strong cuttable material.
I'm saving my money for the unicorn dairy. Seriously the only people who are going to benefit from this are some Dutch yuppies - the 3euros ending up with the poor sods roaming over the rubbish dumps is laughable.
This idea is rubbish because of the price. When recycled filament becomes cheaper than virgin filament, I'll pay attention to it. It's unfortunate, but that's the market.
The price point is not there. Feeling all happy and good inside for purchasing substandard more expensive products to make yourself feel better about yourself OK. This is not making any dent in the landfills in 3rd world countries. Just donate some money to charities instead, that's what I do. This kind of hippy nonsense is just nonsense.
I donate thousands to charities which actually help with these issues. Paying for overpriced feel good filament is the narrow minded approach. But thanks for playing.
Thing is, if this works, and there's proof that it works, the people going with this project can get pretty sizable grants from multiple government agencies to keep doing what they're doing. That would actually lower the price of these filaments substantially, and eventually once they reach a certain point, the cost of producing filament like this might even become cheaper or at least comparable to doing it the standard way. Also, you have to take into account the idea that what MM said was true. Plastic is a non-renewable, precious resource. Precious in the sense we use it literally everywhere. At some point, plastics might get too expensive to produce without recycling it, and it's better to have companies who recycle such things already running and producing product when that happens.
Recycle the plastic you use. Do you part help the planet. Great. Don't think for a moment that this can work on this scale. Supporting an inferior higher priced product because of a social message is any other field would be considered foolish. What if I sold you a car which didn't run quiet as well as a honda, didn't look as good (if you think a honda is nice looking) but was 2 times more expensive, but half the profits for this car went to supporting starving kids in Africa, wouldn't it make more sense to buy a working authentic honda and help out the starving kids separately? Same thing here. This stuff is not as good, more expensive -- but it has a social message -- so yea, feel free to back them! Or you can buy a filastruder and make your own filament out of your own recycled plastic for a fraction of what they're charging.
As far as I'm concerned this is a direct ripoff and continuation of what Dave Hakkens has done. And I didn't see or hear anyone namedrop him in the kickstarter, which is a damn shame. In fact, he's posted complete plans (free) and build video's (free) of everything he's done so far, and he's actually going to the places where this kind of recycling is actually viable for the SMALL consumer, gets them the equipment they need to make money, and moves on to the next person in need. He is THE OG non profit people helper of the small consumer plastic world. This however smells of sham somewhat. They just want to sell 3d filament, which isn't exactly rocket science. I'd much rather people looked into building their own setup and actually start recycling themselves. This business model of reinvesting into waste collection and local manufacturing seems fishy. And on that note; Give a man a fish, he's gonna eat for a day. Teach a man how to build his own processing tooling, and he'll have 3d filament forever. I realise that Dave has endorsed this kickstarter on his twitter account, but still; Jasper gives people a job. Dave gives people a viable company.
I don't understand why this guy does not do it in the UK, there's plenty of plastic bottles there. Or wait... maybe here's a "rich" Brit trying to set a company in a 3rd world country with cheap labor hand and wants you to believe that you're helping some "poor bastard" in a poor country, marvelous!. Because if he really wants to help he will hand over the tech to the "poor bastards", but that won't happen, ever!. I live in Argentina which is usually considered a 3rd world country, and every single time I see an "Initiative to help 3rd world country" I smell a conn, and I feel like shooting someone in the head, even when I hate guns and I don't want a gun near me at all. In my first hand experience this initiatives are usually either lobbyists behind NPO, snobs with no connection to the real world or to get funds from some NPO using 3rd world as a buzz word that helps to politically promote the idea.
Recycling is a good thing. The way I see it this recycled plastic should be advertised as so. It could be used for support material, very rapid and early prototyping and other uses where quality isn't thaaaaat important.
Also, from everything you've shown, the filament isn't extruded during production, it is drawn. Completely different process, as someone with an understanding of engineering I thought you'd appreciate that tidbit :)
+Maker's Muse interestingly my university (the only one left in Scotland to do so) has an extruder and they've previously extruded filament and handed it to the Printer technician who now swears by it.
You don't have much positive to say about home made filament, but there are lots of positive stories on the net of people who are having success with home extruders.
The commercial machines use more complex techniques to produce large volumes of filament quickly. This isn't such an issue for a smaller machine where you are likely willing to wait the hour it takes to produce a kilo of filament.
Filastruder seems to be doing well and there are companies around selling PLA and ABS pellets used for producing your own filaments. You can produce filament for as low as $6-$8 per kg which makes it an attractive prospect. It also gives you the advantage of being able to make the amount of filament you need in a certain colour rather than having to buy 1kg at a time.
Maybe you could review the Filastruder for us and see what your opinion is after some hands on experience?
Most probably don't know, but in Germany there's this really "Pfand", so basically if you return the bottle, (glass, reused bottles or recycled bottles) you get 15-25ct. Really helps, and many people that don't want to do this just leave the bottle next to a garbage bin, and some homeless person can get a few cents. Some do this on a large scale at events, and can actually live decently.
There's essentially a point where two factors have to converge to make the recycled plastic filament business model viable.
First, the end product has to be comparable to existing competing products (new filament). The consistency/purity of the material has to be such that printer settings can be set for reliable, consistent print results like all new material filaments. We are assuming that's covered by the sorting and processing of recycled materials.
The second factor is cost of end product. Naturally, this Kickstarter program is a testbed project, so we are looking at a cost ineffective product, but looking at a long term, much larger scale commercial level industry, the end product could feasibly be sold for the same price as all new material. At that point, the real incentive for using recycled is because it's recycled and better for the environment be reducing the production of new materials while simultaneously reducing landfill material that doesn't readily break down.
It still takes money, time and energy to reprocess used materials, meaning if the cost of producing recycled filament is the same as the cost of producing all new material filament, again, the only advantage the manufacturer is looking at is reducing landfill waste and introducing less new plastic material into the environment overall.
Realistically speaking, until those two factors converge, we probably won't be seeing large scale recycled filament operations in action.
Lastly, the other issue when it comes to reclaiming used plastic is ideally you'll be sorting out new used plastic as opposed to plastic buried in a landfill that has been exposed to UV radiation for an indeterminate amount of time that has begun the slow process of decomposition. Dirt and chemical exposure can similarly create variances in decomposition rates, making the sorting process key, again, prioritizing (maybe even limited to) recently discarded plastic.
But that's all just speculation. A closer look at the plastic bottle recycling industry used in the production of more bottles or perhaps filler/packing materials would probably answer a lot of these issues.
Turning third world plastic waste into usable building materials might be a better endeavor than making printer filament.
Yeah, bricks made with shredded plastics as a kind of cellulose binder would be more viable until we have drones capable of collecting, sorting, and cleaning plastics using few resources and high accuracy. Until then virgin filament is necessary for reliable extrusion printing. Extrusion printing could become obsolete before all of this happens.
This is great! I'm willing to back this project - this is a way to make a change for the better. If we think of new ways to use waste materials, everyone wins.
Just a nice little fyi:
The whole thing about the plastic being different ages etc can be solved with a machine
At high temps in a low pressure nitrogen atmosphere the flakes/pellets need to be kept for like 12 hours. A machine that does that costs around 5 million $ - that is after you've built the machine that produces, washes and sorts the flakes by color etc
I think the idea of creating a market for recycled products is great! I also agree that we will eventually be mining our landfills for the plastic and metals we have buried in the past. We are already using the methane generated in landfills to power homes in some states. The goal should always be zero waste and we have to continue to innovate.
I really reflow. I contacted them and once they are done they are sending me a roll to do a review on. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I really hope in the future all filaments will be 50% or more recycled and some smount of virgin plastic just for good quiality.
Personally I've always felt you are right with home recycling. It just doesn't work. However on a large scale sure it would be an awesome idea. Recycled bottles had its fair share of criticism when it first started and now it's on a global scale. Great work this week Angus. Loved all the videos.
Only thermoplast plastic can be recycled. However, it needs more than just collecting and squeezing through a nozzle. It needs the chemistry to make them flexible and durable again. This involves solvents and thermal processing which goes far beyond what a small company may achieve.
Nevertheless, it is a noble way of thinking and the right direction to move.
Recycling is a good thing. The way I see it this recycled plastic should be advertised as so. It could be used for support material, very rapid and early prototyping and other uses where quality isn't thaaaaat important.
I reslly like your enviromental responsiblity.
Plus, about burning plastic, it is extremely unhealthy and even a carcinogen. So recycling it is almost entirely better.
3D printing needs consistent quality material. And anyway, the virgin is granulate is about $6 or so per Kg, recycled filament will not be cheaper. Recycled PET might work if the waste material comes from ONE source. For collected waste, no chance! There will be contamination with LDPE/HDPE, plus labels, inks etc. The people get probably paid by weight, so cutting down and sorting generates more money for the collectors.
I would sort it as good as I can and re-grind it, and then mix it into some lower-end plastic products. That is how plastics are usually recycled.
Hey Angus,
Just wanted to say, I really liked the format of the vids this week, keep it up!
I enjoy the series.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing your input on this one.
It's MakerGeeks! He is who I get all my PETG from. :)
Mining for materials from scrap are already a thing for many years in many countries. just that it doesn't receive much attentions from the public. However the filament is way too expensive, it is even more expensive than cheaper bands that proven to provide acceptable print quality. there is very little to no economical reason to buy a roll of inconsistent quality filament. I imagine they need to mix certain (high) percentage of virgin plastic into the mixture in order to improve the consistency, just like what the manufacturers already doing with a lot of the plastic products. That being said, i probly wont try to use filament that made this way, a slight impurity could really screw up your hotend.
You should do these videos more often, I enjoy them.
I backed them, its $30ish dollars, if nothing comes out of it i can afford to lose it :P and its for a decent cause heh
The manufacturer (whos name you couldn't remember) from the video was MakerGeeks
I would love to see commercial recycled polymer filaments like ABS and metalloids. I worry about other environmental pollutants that would be necessary for the extraction process.
Hey Angus, I enjoyed your series on Kickstarter printers.
The US company making filament in the video is Maker Geeks.
I very much enjoyed these videos. Regarding recycling, I would think an approach that started locally for the company and then expanded would be something I would back. This way, all can learn close to home and then optimize for the remote areas. I'd be interested in efforts that focused on the local schools and got all the school children / teachers to use recycled/participate. I'd also donate to that.
Thank you for your excellent videos.
Thats what Im fccusing on. But in France, in an island: Corsica
Where are these projects now? Update please!
My zany Idea for recycling plastic is bottles used as plumbing. Very little change cut top and bottom of the bottles, a set of added thread and uniform size would make unlimited pipe. Plumbing infrastructure is one of the biggest drawbacks in the third world. What if it didn’t cost anything to fix it?
That's Awesome because hopefully filaments will be WAY cheaper
Hi Angus,
Few years later, do you have any DIY extruder that worth to play with?
Alexandre Valiquette from Québec, Canada
Plastics must be recycled much more - on a local scale - see preciousplastics.com - you take a plastic into your community - it's your responsibility to recycle it - doesn't always need to be 3D print filament quality - look at your mono plastic moulded chairs or any other plastic as a resource or as a moulded product. Reclaim the means of production by the individual.
That printer at the back is the hobbyking Malyan M150? :-)
I was going to buy it, now I think its better to wait 4 the review
Well spotted ;)
+Maker's Muse I can't wait for the review of the Malyan M150 3D Printer. I definitely want to get one. Just want to see your review before I do. Keep up the amazing work Angus!
It's a knock-off of the older version of the Cocoon Create/Wanhao Duplicator. Not worth buying as its not that much cheaper
No link to filament make video ?
What is the song that you use in the outro?
I wrote it for the video series :)
what about all the plastic in the ocean hmmm something to think bout great vid
I'm here in India and have been working on a DIY version to do this
hey Angus, recycling plastics is still a great idea. but not to produce filament, except if it's your own printer waste if you are a serious recycler. But waste plastics can make so much other sheet materials or objects. Check preciousplastics.com out. there's videos of 3d fully working printed extrusion molds. 3d printing can be a part of the whole recycling thing if you think as a maker and not only as a 3d printer guy. ;)
I don't know about making filament but I once worked in a Plastic company and they recycled the plastic over and over and over mixed with new material. So it's great for some kinds of injection molded products but for your home printer?...
Once the plastic has gone through the downcycling phase and reused, we will end up with something which can't be reprocessed into new material. At that point we will end up with piles of the stuff all over again. I think we need to end our love affair with plastic altogether and find something else more environmentally agreeable.
hdpe is great for home recycling
HDPE is exceedingly difficult to 3D Print with sadly! PET is easier.
Maker's Muse thanks! I've been using cnc, but recently got on the trinus campaign (after seeing your review). I should qualify my statements better. Hdpe is great for making patties of strong cuttable material.
Us list info
Dam you have a old computer
I'm saving my money for the unicorn dairy.
Seriously the only people who are going to benefit from this are some Dutch yuppies - the 3euros ending up with the poor sods roaming over the rubbish dumps is laughable.
This idea is rubbish because of the price. When recycled filament becomes cheaper than virgin filament, I'll pay attention to it. It's unfortunate, but that's the market.
The price point is not there. Feeling all happy and good inside for purchasing substandard more expensive products to make yourself feel better about yourself OK. This is not making any dent in the landfills in 3rd world countries. Just donate some money to charities instead, that's what I do. This kind of hippy nonsense is just nonsense.
This is why there are landfills because narrow minded people like you won't change
I donate thousands to charities which actually help with these issues. Paying for overpriced feel good filament is the narrow minded approach. But thanks for playing.
There are more than enough gullible fools to offset those that can see this for the nonsense that it is.
Thing is, if this works, and there's proof that it works, the people going with this project can get pretty sizable grants from multiple government agencies to keep doing what they're doing. That would actually lower the price of these filaments substantially, and eventually once they reach a certain point, the cost of producing filament like this might even become cheaper or at least comparable to doing it the standard way.
Also, you have to take into account the idea that what MM said was true. Plastic is a non-renewable, precious resource. Precious in the sense we use it literally everywhere. At some point, plastics might get too expensive to produce without recycling it, and it's better to have companies who recycle such things already running and producing product when that happens.
Recycle the plastic you use. Do you part help the planet. Great. Don't think for a moment that this can work on this scale. Supporting an inferior higher priced product because of a social message is any other field would be considered foolish. What if I sold you a car which didn't run quiet as well as a honda, didn't look as good (if you think a honda is nice looking) but was 2 times more expensive, but half the profits for this car went to supporting starving kids in Africa, wouldn't it make more sense to buy a working authentic honda and help out the starving kids separately? Same thing here. This stuff is not as good, more expensive -- but it has a social message -- so yea, feel free to back them! Or you can buy a filastruder and make your own filament out of your own recycled plastic for a fraction of what they're charging.
it's just giving us another option to work with. If it dose not meet your needs just don't buy it.
As far as I'm concerned this is a direct ripoff and continuation of what Dave Hakkens has done. And I didn't see or hear anyone namedrop him in the kickstarter, which is a damn shame.
In fact, he's posted complete plans (free) and build video's (free) of everything he's done so far, and he's actually going to the places where this kind of recycling is actually viable for the SMALL consumer, gets them the equipment they need to make money, and moves on to the next person in need. He is THE OG non profit people helper of the small consumer plastic world.
This however smells of sham somewhat. They just want to sell 3d filament, which isn't exactly rocket science. I'd much rather people looked into building their own setup and actually start recycling themselves. This business model of reinvesting into waste collection and local manufacturing seems fishy.
And on that note; Give a man a fish, he's gonna eat for a day. Teach a man how to build his own processing tooling, and he'll have 3d filament forever.
I realise that Dave has endorsed this kickstarter on his twitter account, but still; Jasper gives people a job. Dave gives people a viable company.
I don't understand why this guy does not do it in the UK, there's plenty of plastic bottles there.
Or wait... maybe here's a "rich" Brit trying to set a company in a 3rd world country with cheap labor hand and wants you to believe that you're helping some "poor bastard" in a poor country, marvelous!. Because if he really wants to help he will hand over the tech to the "poor bastards", but that won't happen, ever!.
I live in Argentina which is usually considered a 3rd world country, and every single time I see an "Initiative to help 3rd world country" I smell a conn, and I feel like shooting someone in the head, even when I hate guns and I don't want a gun near me at all.
In my first hand experience this initiatives are usually either lobbyists behind NPO, snobs with no connection to the real world or to get funds from some NPO using 3rd world as a buzz word that helps to politically promote the idea.
They are not British, but Dutch...
labour cost.
Dave Hakkens. He's on youtube. OG as fuck. Look him up.
I love his project so much (PRECIOUS PLASTIC)that I'm in reaserche mode to create my own project, to aply it in a french island, Corsica
second!!
Hi (first)
fast
Man this video didn’t age well
Why not ?
hey can you make me a cherry printer and send it to me I will pay you $60
I see you have an malyan m150 in the back ground are you going to do a review on it?
Yep it just showed up. Will review it when I have a chance.
Recycling is a good thing. The way I see it this recycled plastic should be advertised as so. It could be used for support material, very rapid and early prototyping and other uses where quality isn't thaaaaat important.
Also Dave Hakkens, creator of Phonebloks designed a filament recycler a while back.
Also, from everything you've shown, the filament isn't extruded during production, it is drawn. Completely different process, as someone with an understanding of engineering I thought you'd appreciate that tidbit :)
Whoops! You're correct they're using a drawing process. The process used by low cost diy filament projects are usually extrusion based though.
+Maker's Muse interestingly my university (the only one left in Scotland to do so) has an extruder and they've previously extruded filament and handed it to the Printer technician who now swears by it.
I'm an English tax-payer... so I funded that! Support the 3rd World (Scotland)! :P