Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021) 123689

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Effect of recycling on the mechanical behavior and structure of

additively manufactured acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
Alex K. Cress a, Jimmy Huynh a, Eric H. Anderson a, Ryan O’neill a, Yanika Schneider b,
€
Ozgür Keleş a, *
a
Chemical and Materials Engineering Department, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, 95192, USA
b
EAG Laboratories, 810 Kifer Rd, Sunnyvale, CA, 94086, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is the most common additive manufacturing system that is increas-
Received 16 July 2019 ingly used for industrial and consumer applications. These systems selectively extrude/deposit polymers
Received in revised form to manufacture parts directly from computational designs. Therefore, FDM enables conversion of recy-
6 June 2020
cled thermoplastic polymers to higher quality products. However, FDM induces porosity, which reduces
Accepted 10 August 2020
Available online 19 August 2020
mechanical performance and causes variations in mechanical properties of fused deposition modeled
(FDMed) polymers. A safe and reliable use of FDMed-recycled polymers demands a better understanding
^ as de
Handling Editor: Cecilia Maria Villas Bo of the effect of recycling on the mechanical properties. In this study, we investigated the effect of three
Almeida rounds of recycling on the stochastic mechanical properties of FDMed ABS. A total of 337 tensile tests
were performed on FDMed virgin and recycled ABS. Recycling increased the porosity of FDMed ABS from
Keywords: ~11 vol% to ~17 vol %. The tensile and fracture strength decreased by ~10%. The strain at break decreased
3D printing by 25% from 5.2% to 3.9%, causing a decrease in toughness by 37%. We observed significant variations in
Recycling the mechanical properties, which were analyzed using Weibull statistics. An S-type deviation from
Circular economy
Weibull distribution was observed for strength variations that was related to porosity. Minimal degra-
Distributed manufacturing
dation in ABS molecular structure was observed via gel permeation chromatography, Fourier-transform
Green manufacturing
infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy revealed an
increase in elemental iron with recycling.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction wastedwater bottles, containers, packaging, etc.dis locally recy-

Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D printing,
has quickly made the transition from a proprietary rapid proto-
typing technology to a widespread and accessible means of func-
tional fabrication at the consumer level. The most common type
AM technique is fused deposition modeling (FDM, an extrusion-
based AM) with an estimated one million FDM systems in circu-
lation world-wide (Wohlers Associates, Inc, 2016). On an industrial
level, it has been estimated that additive manufacturing may sup-
plant machining operations and polymers replace various designs
within the next 10 years (Faludi et al., 2017). However, without the
use of recycled materials, this plastic simply adds to the global
polymer waste stream, where less than 10% of waste is recycled
(EPA, 2016). We envision a future where consumer plastic
* Corresponding author.
€ Keleş).
E-mail address: ozgur.keles@sjsu.edu (O.
cled as a raw material for 3D printing. This recycling can enable 3D
printing of consumer goods, such as shoes, toys, gardening tools,
mobile phone cases, spare parts, and many others. Accordingly,
conversion of consumer waste to functional high quality products
via AM holds the key for a sustainable future and effective circular
economy. Yet, the effects of recycling on the mechanical behavior of
fused deposition modeled (FDMed) polymers are unknown,
limiting their wider use. In the current study, we addressed this
knowledge gap and investigated the effects of recycling on the
mechanics and structure of FDMed ABS.
World Bank estimated two billion tons of global municipal solid
waste (MSW) in 2016 (Kaza, 2018). MSW includes paper, cardboard,
plastic, food waste, metal, glass, and other materials. On the other
hand, industrial waste was estimated to be 18 times the MSW
(Kaza, 2018). Common industrial waste sources are manufacturing,
mining, agriculture, coal combustion, and oil-gas production.
Globally, we also generated 47 million tons of electronic waste that

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123689
0959-6526/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 A.K. Cress et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021) 123689
contain valuable metals and toxic materials (Zhang, 2019). Paper
industry also generates ~160 million tons of waste (Azevedo, 2019;
Toczyłowska-Mamin  ska, 2017). The rising waste generation calls
for sustainability practices. We have been dealing with this waste
from a reuse, reduce, and recycle perspectivedknown as 3Rs of
waste hierarchy (Robertson, 2017). Current trend, on the other
hand, is targeting a zero waste approach that aims to eliminate
waste instead of manage it (Curran and Williams, 2012). However,
we cannot eliminate plastic waste easily because they are used in
many applications and as single use products, including bottles,
containers, and packages (Allwood et al., 2012).
Plastic production as a whole is facing an increasing disparity
between the exponential increase in production and the limited
capabilities of traditional centralized recycling methods. The
average American consumes over 120 kg of plastic a year, with the
global production of plastics at over 322 million tons annually
(Plastics Europe, 2018). This number continues to grow, with a
prediction of 470 million tons by 2050 (Jones et al., 2011). However,
the level of recycling and reduction efforts cannot keep up with this
continued growth in production (Allwood et al., 2012). With plastic
waste encroaching further into ocean and terrestrial habitats, the
environmental impact continues to intensify in severity (Laist,
1987). Moreover, the toxic absorption and intrinsically low rates
of environmental breakdown of polymers further confounds this
problem (Tanaka et al., 2013).
The recovery rate of plastics in our municipal waste stream
(MWS) is below 10% for the majority of plastic types, where less
than half is directly recycled and majority is incinerated (Fig. 1). In
addition, the energy cost and carbon emissions of the traditional
recycling processes are unnecessarily high, with transportation
making up nearly 20% of all energy use, and 40% of all carbon
emissions for the process (EPA, 2016). 3D printing offers solutions
to the environmental impact of traditional plastic production,
through reduced energy consumption, topology optimization, and
reduced part weight (Faludi, 2017; Brackett et al., 2011). However,
there is also a corresponding growth in 3D printed plastic waste,
Fig. 1. Recovery rate for plastic types in the municipal waste stream, in thousands of
tons, adapted from (Environmental Protection Agency, 2016, p. 10).
with nearly 34% of printed plastic reported wasted (Song and
Telenko, 2017). This waste is inherent to the FDM process, spur-
red by the need for supporting structures and the propensity for
failed prints. With no recycling system in place for printed mate-
rials (Hunt, 2015), this waste adds to the already bloated global
polymer waste stream.
One solution to the increasing plastic waste is to recycle post-
consumer waste and post print waste into 3D printer feedstock.
Baechler et al. showed that FDM filament could be successfully
generated from 100% recycled household waste with the help of a
Recyclebot (Baechler, 2013). Cost-effective consumer-grade fila-
ment extruders are also available. These extruders not only provide
the consumer with the ability to customize the color and compo-
sition of their filament (Kumar and Czekanski, 2017) and recycle
post print waste (Zhao, 2018), but also recycle post-consumer
waste from the municipal waste stream (Zhong and Pearce, 2018;
Wittbrodt et al., 2013).
The possibility of post-consumer waste recycling combined
with additive manufacturing (Chen et al., 2015) offers a low envi-
ronmental impact future based on decentralized recycling. In
comparison to our current recycling paradigm, distributed recy-
cling with a recyclebot was estimated to provide a potential 80%
reduction in energy compared with traditional centralized recy-
cling methods (Kreiger, 2014). Using life cycle analysis methods,
Zhao et al. found that closed loop recycling was the most envi-
ronmentally friendly option for 3D printing (Zhao, 2018). These
reports show the potential impact of AM on circular economies
(CE), in which the products, materials, and resources are kept in the
economy as long as possible and waste is minimized (Geerken,
2019). Accordingly, recycled polymer waste– PET bottles, post-
consumer ABS, and other thermoplastics–can be upcycled to
products for society. These products can range from load-bearing
shoes to static decorative products for interior design. In addition,
various parts can be additively manufactured (AMed) with recycled
polymers to be used in bicycles, scooters, skateboards, drones, and
other products. One needs to understand the design requirements
for a product and manufacture parts to satisfy the required physical
properties (Najmon, 2019; Meininger, 2016; Sule, 2019). In this
report, we focus on the mechanical properties and mechanical
reliability of FMDed-recycled ABS to pave the way for safe use of
FDMed products/parts.
The inherent anisotropy caused by the rasterized and layerwise
nature of extrusion-based 3D printing reduces the strength of
FDMed parts, especially with respect to the load direction (Ahn
et al., 2002). It has also been demonstrated that controllable pa-
rameters, along with other extraneous print parameters, have a
significant effect on the quality and strength of 3D printed parts
(Bellini and Guceri, 2003) (Lanzotti et al., 2015). FDM allows control
of many printing parameters, including layer height, extrusion
width, extrusion temperature, raster orientation (i.e., deposition
orientation), and air gap (i.e., distance between two neighboring
rasters).
Specifically, the effect of air gap on the strength of FDMed parts
is well documented in the literature. Air gap is a function of several
factors, such as slicing parameters, print-bed leveling issues, and
changes in filament diameter (Rodriguez et al., 2001) (Turner et al.,
2014) (Gilmer et al., 2017). As a result, the air gap is challenging to
accurately control (Tymrak et al., 2014). Ahn et al. analyzed the
effects of print parameters and found that the air gap and raster
orientation were the only significant parameters affecting me-
chanical behavior (Ahn S.-H., Montero, Odell, Roundy and Wright,
2002). Dawoud et al. found that air gap was the single most sig-
nificant factor in determining mechanical behavior, specifically that
a negative air gap (raster overlap) increased the tensile and impact
strength, while a positive air gap (raster separation) caused a
 A.K. Cress et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021) 123689
decrease in strength (Dawoud et al., 2016). Moreover, the extrusion
head cannot follow the exact deposition path in FDM systems (Dei
Rossi, 2019). That is, the rasters are printed within a certain devi-
ation from the deposition path; thus, causes variations in me-
chanical properties due to the changes in defect size in FDMed
parts. We also need to quantify the variations in mechanical
properties to ensure required reliability levels in FDMed-recycled
parts.
The variations in mechanical properties of FDMed materials can
be quantified by the two-parameter Weibull distribution (Weibull,
1951): Pf ¼ 1-exp [(V/V0) (s/so)m], where Pf is the probability of
failure, m is the Weibull modulus, s is applied stress, and so is the
characteristic strength. V is the volume of the specimen and V0 is
the normalizing volume. One can assume V]V0 for tests comparing
same size specimens. The Weibull modulus is a direct measure of
the variation in strength for a given data set, with a higher m value
representing a lower variation in mechanical properties. While s
specifically refers to applied stress in this equation, s can be
replaced with any mechanical property of interest to quantify
variability. The Weibull modulus can be used when assessing a
material’s suitability for consumer or engineering applications,
where the probability of failure is an important consideration.
Metals, for example, have a Weibull moduli of 90e100 and ceramics
5e20 (Meyers and Chawla, 2009).
In our previous study, we showed that the variations in fracture
strength of FDMed ABS can be as high as technical ceramics (Keleş
et al., 2017). In addition, build orientation significantly affected
mechanical reliability. For example, the default build orientation XY
resulted in m ¼ 67, but 45 rotation of the XY build orientation
about z-axis decreased the Weibull modulus to 26 in FDMed ABS.
On the other hand, introduction of a 3 mm hole in the center of the
tensile specimens decreased the m value from 67 to 30 for XY build
orientation. Recently, we also showed that the mechanical reli-
ability of FDMed short-carbon-fiber-reinforced ABS was as low as
that of ceramics with a Weibull modulus of 24 in XY build orien-
tation (Keleş et al., 2017). Additionally, we improved the reliability
by reducing the inter-bead pores via vibration-assisted FDM (VA-
FDM). These reliability studies show that the variations in me-
chanical properties depend on material type, build/raster orienta-
tion, and inter-bead pores. From a CE point of view, higher
reliability means that lower amount of material can be used to
achieve the same mechanical performance in a part. Or, product
lifetime could be longer for the same of material because a higher
reliability will be achieved. For example, lighter and longer lasting
shoes can be 3D printed from higher reliability materials. However,
the effects of recycling on the mechanical reliability and other
mechanical properties of FDMed ABS have not been examined in
the literature.
Waste polymer molecular structure is affected by mechanical
recycling and high heat stages during filament production and
filament deposition (Ragaert, 2017). The changes in molecular
structure such as molecular weight reduction can affect the vis-
cosity and final mechanical properties. Previous studies investi-
gated use of limited number of recycled polymers for 3D printing.
For example, Sanchez et al. found a decrease in mechanical prop-
erties after iterative recycling of FDM filament made from polylactic
acid (PLA) (Sanchez, 2017). Zhao et al. found thermal degradation of
PLA with repeated recycling cycles, with molecular chain scission as
the primary degradation mechanism, identified through Fourier-
transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). This degradation caused
changes in the rheology, crystallinity, and morphology of the
printed parts (Zhao et al., 2018). In contrast, Hart et al. found that
the reprocessing of packaging made from low density polyethylene
(LDPE) into FDM feedstock resulted in minimal effects on critical
thermal transitions, confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry
3
(DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) (Hart et al., 2018).
While no studies exist on the effect of recycling on ABS FDM
filament, traditional recycling of ABS in injection molding appli-
cations can be used as an analog. Studies suggest a degradation of
ABS with each recycling cycle, corresponding to a degradation in
the mechanical properties of components made with recycled ABS
(Rahimi et al., 2014). The presence of chemical degradation can be
identified through FTIR, particularly through an increase in peak
intensity between 1680 and 1750 cm1, indicating the formation of
carbonyl groups (Bai et al., 2007). Degradation can also be seen via
TGA through a decrease in decomposition temperature (Liu et al.,
2017). DSC analysis of injection molded ABS likewise showed a
marked decrease in average molecular weight and a marked in-
crease in the polydispersity index (PDI) unless epoxy based chain
extenders are used (Wang et al., 2015). X-ray fluoresce spectroscopy
(XRF) can be used to identify trace elements and therefore the
presence of polymer blends (Cl), additives (Br, Sb, P), or heavy metal
contaminants (Pb, Hg, Cd) (Riise et al., 2000). Morphologically, the
formation of voids during recycling has also been observed, and is
associated with both a decrease in strength and decrease in strain
at fracture (Arnold et al., 2009). However, it is unclear whether
these findings carry over to the unique conditions of 3D printing.
In this context, current study investigated the effects of recy-
cling on the strength, reliability, and polymer characteristics of
FDMed ABS. We chose ABS due to its prevalence in both 3D printing
and the consumer waste stream. Recycling was performed on 100%
post print waste as it represents a pure waste stream source; the
process was repeated three times to determine the compounding
effects. Tensile tests were performed on FDMed virgin and recycled
ABS specimens, a total of 317 tests. The effects of recycling on the
ABS filaments were characterized by DSC, TGA, FTIR, XRF, and gel
permeation chromatography (GPC).
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Iterative recycling process
Recycling of samples was performed by granulation in an
Amazon Basics micro-cut paper shredder (Fig. 2). Granulate was
collected in the bin and transferred to a sealed HDPE container with
silica adsorbent and moisture indicator. Recycled filaments were
extruded using a Filastruder desktop filament extrusion kit. The
filament extrusion temperature was set 180  C.
Eleven batches of eleven samples were printed to create a total
of 121 virgin ABS tensile specimens. The tested samples were
granulated and used to create the recycled filament. This filament
was then used to print eleven batches of recycled tensile specimen
(ABS1). This process was repeated two more times to create five
batches of second round recycled tensile specimen (ABS2) and
three batches of third round recycled tensile specimen (ABS3). The
number of performed tensile tests-number of valid tests are
113e52 for virgin ABS, 117e54 for ABS1, 55e42 for ABS2, and
32e25 for ABS3. Filaments, tensile specimens, and granulates were
stored in a desiccator to reduce the effect of moisture on the plastic.
2.2. FDM system and 3D printing parameters
Rectangular tensile specimens of 165  13  3.2 mm were
printed using a Roaddog Labs Bart 3D printer with a 0.4 mm
extursion nozzle. The STL file was sliced with the Slic3r program
(Slic3r, 2016). The controllable parameters (Fig. 3) were adjusted to
provide a nominally dense specimen with 100% infill and no
extrusion multiplier. For recycled filament, diameter was continu-
ously measured and averaged for each batch. The filament diameter
setting was set to this value for each batch. Layer height was
4 A.K. Cress et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021) 123689
Fig. 2. Iterative process of 3D printing and recycling showing a) FDM printer, b) printed and tested tensile specimen, c) cross-cut shedder, d) filament extruder, and e) filament
winder.
Fig. 3. Schematic of an FDMed polymer showing a) layer height, b) raster width, c)
raster spacing, d) overlapping air gap, and e) inter-bead porosity.
200 mm for all layers. Single perimeters were used, deposited at a
speed of 60 mm/s and a width of 0.42 mm. Infill raster was set at
0.68 mm and deposited at 80 mm/s with a perimeter overlap of 5%.
The nozzle temperature was 235  C and print bed temperature was
125  C.
2.3. Tensile testing
Tensile tests were performed according to ASTM D3039 with an
Instron 4204 universal testing machine and an Instron 2630 strain
gage extensometer. Crosshead speed was 1 mm/min. The failure
mode of each sample was recorded, and only data from samples
with valid failure modes where fracture occurred within the gage
length were used in the analysis of fracture strength and strain at
break. The weight and dimensions of samples were recorded using
a digital micrometer and analytical balance. The porosity of each
sample was determined by calculating the density of each sample
and then accounting for the density of the starting filaments.
Fracture surfaces were imaged using an FEI Quanta 200 scanning
electron microscope (SEM).
2.4. Chemical and thermal characterization
GPC was performed on an Agilent 1100 Gel Permeation Chro-
matography system with two Resipore 300  7.5 mm columns in
series using THF as the solvent. The molecular weights were cali-
brated using polystyrene standards. The samples were prepared by
dissolving ABS in THF at a concentration of 1 mg/mL. The number
average molar mass (MN), the average of the molecular weights, as
well as the mass average molar mass (MW), the average corrected
for the mass effects of heavier molecules, was determined for fil-
aments generated during each round of recycling. These values
were used to determine the polydispersity index (PDI), a measure
of the uniformity of the polymer chains.
FTIR spectroscopy was performed in transmission mode on
samples prepared by removing a small portion of the ABS plastic
with a stainless steel scalpel and transferring to an infrared trans-
mitting substrate. The samples were examined using a Thermo-
Nicolet 6700 FTIR spectrometer equipped with a Continuum mi-
croscope. The analytical spot size was approximately 100  100 mm.
OMNIC 8.0 software was used to perform data analysis.
XRF was performed using a Rigaku Primus II WDXRF with a
rhodium X-ray source under vacuum on an analysis area of 20 mm
diameter. This analysis utilized a wavelength dispersive spec-
trometer (WDXRF) that is capable of detecting elements at con-
centrations from the low parts per million (ppm) range up to 100%
by weight. Quantification was performed using the Fundamental
Parameters (FP) standardless quantification software. The FP uses
X-ray physics coupled with sensitivity factors for pure elements.
Relative accuracy by this method ranges from better than 5% up to
~20% for major elements.
Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was performed on a Perki-
nElmer TGA7 using platinum pans and nitrogen as the working gas.
Approximately 10 mg of sample was heated from 20 to 600  C at a
heating rate of 10  C/min. Measurements were calculated using the
PerkinElmer Pyris Thermal Software v5.0 parameters.
 A.K. Cress et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021) 123689 5

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Effect of recycling on the mechanical properties of FDMed ABS

We obtained mechanical property data from 317 tensile tests in

36 batches, including tensile strength (TS), strain at tensile strength
(εTS), fracture stress (sf), nominal strain at fracture (εf), and elastic
modulus (E). We also tensile tested virgin and recycled ABS fila-
ments, a total of 20 tests. The effect of recycling on the mechanical
properties are summarized in Table 1. The representative stress-
strain curves for each round of recycling are shown in Fig. 4.
Mechanical properties of FDMed ABS decreased with recycling.
The major culprit was the increased porosity after recycling
(Table 1). Porosity increased from 11 vol% to 16e18 vol% after
recycling. The TS, sf, εTS, and εf decreased due to recycling. The
elastic moduli for the virgin and recycled batches were statistically
the same at ~1.6 GPa. The stress-strain diagrams show the general
trend observed for FDMed ABS under tension (Fig. 4). The TS
decreased by 11%, εTS decreased by 13%, and sf decreased by 8% by
the final third round of recycling (ABS3). The TS of all ABS speci-
mens (>29.4 MPa) were higher than our previous report on Fig. 4. Representative tensile stress-strain curves for FDMed ABS: a) virgin ABS, b)
industrially used Stratasys ABSplus-P430 (24.5 MPa), which was ABS1, c) ABS2, and d) ABS3.
printed using a Stratasys uPrint SE (Keleş et al., 2017). However, the
industrial ABSplus-P430 resulted in a higher εf of 8.9% compared to
5.2% for virgin ABS in this study. Recycling also significantly affected (Table 1). Scaffaro’s first and second round of recycling were also
the εf. We observed ~8% reduction in εf with each iteration of resulted in TS of ~33.5 and ~32 MPa, respectively Note that our ABS
recycling, a decrease of 25% from the virgin ABS to ABS3. These is different than the injection-molding grade ABS. The effects of
decreases also manifested as a ~37% decrease in toughness (work of different grades of ABS on FDMed ABS are unclear. Consequently,
fracture, area under the stress-strain diagram) by the third round of post-consumer ABS can be used in FDM 3D printing, which can
recycling. generate mechanical properties similar to injection-molded recy-
We tensile tested samples of virgin and recycled filaments to cled-ABS.
observe the effect of FDM 3D printing on the mechanical properties.
The change in filament TS with recycling was minimal, i.e., the TS of 3.2. Effect of recycling on the stochastic mechanical behavior
the virgin ABS and recycled ABS were within one standard devia-
tion (Table 1). Moreover, the TS of the filament was significantly Mechanical properties of FDMed materials vary from sample-to-
higher than that of the printed samples, indicating that the FDM sample and batch-to-batch. The extrusion-based FDM cannot
process itself is a significant factor in diminishing the strength of completely fill the 3D design and leave inter-bead pores between
the ABS. The TS of virgin ABS filament was 18% higher than the deposited beads (Fig. 2e). We showed that these inter-bead pores
FDMed specimens. This difference between the filament and are the main reason for the variations in mechanical properties,
FDMed specimens was increased to 34% for the ABS3. This result because these pores are the largest defects in FDMed materials
shows that the recycling itself does not reduce the TS, but the de- (Keleş et al., 2017). These inter-bead porosity is visible on fracture
fects due to FDM process reduce the mechanical properties. As a surfaces of FDMed ABS (Fig. 5). Specifically, the low strength
result, FDM process can be improved to keep the virgin ABS fila- specimens clearly show the deposited beads, indicating that the
ment strength in FDMed ABS. specimens were printed with a positive air gap, i.e., bead were not
Scaffaro et al. also performed set of experiments to observe the touching (Fig. 5 e-h). An increase in porosity was also observed
effects of recycling on TS, εf, and E of ABS (Scaffaro et al., 2012). from the first layer (right) to the top layer (left). The low porosity of
These experiment were performed using a virgin ABS (injection- the initial layers is likely due to the heated bed that causes better
molding grade) and the same ABS material recycle from ground fusion of the ABS beads. These inter-bead pores also varied in size
phones. Three rounds of recycling decreased the TS from ~37 MPa that caused variations in mechanical properties.
to ~31 MPa, εf from ~11% to ~4%, and E from ~1.5 GPa to ~1.3 GPa. We quantified these variations using Weibull distribution and
These results are similar to our third round of recycling ABS3 normal distribution. The Pearson c2 and AndersoneDarling (AD)
goodness-of-fit-tests didn’t reveal significant difference between
the Weibull and normal distribution fits. We observed bimodal
Table 1 distribution or multimodal distribution of mechanical properties.
Mean values and standard deviations of tensile strength (TS), fracture strength (sf),
This observation made us focus on the distribution of properties at
strain at tensile strength (εTS), nominal strain at break (εf), porosity (P), and elastic
modulus (E) for virgin/recycled ABS in filament and fused deposition modeled the lower tail using Weibull distribution. The Weibull plot relates
(FDMed) form. the applied stress to the probability of fracture. Therefore, the lower
tail of the data can be used for reliability calculations as it can be
Sample Property Virgin ABS ABS1 ABS2 ABS3
better fitted to the Weibull distribution. We estimated the Weibull
Filament TS (MPa) 38.90 ± 0.75 39.40 ± 0.40 38.90 ± 0.23 39.38 ± 0.43
moduli using the maximum likelihood method. The fitted Weibull
FMDed TS (MPa) 32.96 ± 1.43 31.90 ± 3.50 31.49 ± 3.90 29.44 ± 1.99
FMDed εTS (%) 3.10 ± 0.20 3.04 ± 0.26 2.78 ± 0.16 2.68 ± 0.12 distributions are show as dotted lines in Weibull plots for TS, εTS, sf,
FMDed sf (MPa) 31.05 ± 1.03 28.78 ± 3.03 28.94 ± 2.64 28.72 ± 1.71 and εf (Fig. 6). The slopes of the fits are the Weibull modulus “m”
FMDed εf (%) 5.22 ± 0.81 4.80 ± 0.86 4.28 ± 0.70 3.92 ± 0.55 (Table 2).
FDMed E (GPa) 1.57 ± 0.10 1.54 ± 0.16 1.64 ± 0.18 1.58 ± 0.07 The only statistically significant difference in m values was
FMDed P (vol%) 10.61 ± 1.17 17.59 ± 2.70 17.42 ± 2.80 15.47 ± 1.59
observed for the TS for ABS1. The lower tail Weibull moduli of TS
6 A.K. Cress et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021) 123689

Fig. 5. SEM images of FDMed ABS fracture surfaces with the highest fracture stress for a) virgin ABS, b) ABS1, c) ABS2, and d) ABS3 and with the lowest fracture stress for e) virgin
ABS, f) ABS1, g) ABS2, and h) ABS3. Scale bars represent 1 mm. The porosity of the samples are a) 8, b) 12, c) 13, d) 11, e) 11, f) 24, g) 24, and h) 18 vol %.

⋄
Fig. 6. Weibull plots of a) tensile strength (TS), b) fracture strength, and c) nominal strain at TS, and d) nominal strain at break for virgin ABS (red B), ABS1 (black  ), ABS2 (blue ),
and ABS3 (green þ). Dotted lines represent the fitted Weibull distribution. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web
version of this article.)

decreased from 68 to 36 with the first round of recycling and
increased to 81 for the third round of recycling. The rest of the tail
moduli for εTS, sf, and εf were statistically the same (Table 2). The m
value for the virgin ABS sf was 40. This value is comparable to the
Weibull modulus of 46 (37e58, 90% confidence interval) for the sf
of industrial grade Stratasys ABSplus-P430 for the same build
orientation and specimen size (Keles et al., 2017). The complete
virgin ABS sf data fitted to Weibull distribution with minimal de-
viation unlike the rest of the mechanical property data (Fig. 6b, red
circles). We observed that the variations in εf were higher than sf
(Table 2). The range of εf was high for the virgin ABS, ABS1, and
ABS2, which had similar high εf up to ~7.0% and low εf down to
 A.K. Cress et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021) 123689 7

Table 2
Weibull modulus (m) of FDMed ABS for tensile strength (TS), fracture strength (sf), strain at tensile strength (εTS), and nominal strain at break (εf). The m values correspond to
the slopes of the fitted distributions in Fig. 6. The 90% confidence intervals are give in parenthesis. N represents the sample size for the whole data set or the lower tail.

Sample TS sf εTS εf

N m N m N m N m

Virgin ABS 35 68 (52e82) 52 40 (33e47) 35 49 (37e59) 9 26 (14e36)

ABS1 19 36 (25e46) 17 40 (27e51) 19 57 (39e72) 10 21 (12e29)
ABS2 15 59 (38e77) 15 57 (36e75) 15 76 (49e99) 24 19 (14e24)
ABS3 15 81 (52e105) 14 62 (39e81) 15 63 (40e81) 14 25 (16e33)

~3.0% (Fig. 6d). The large variation in εf also means large variation in
toughness.
3.3. Porosity analysis
The variations of the complete data sets show S-type deviations
specifically for the TS (Fig. 6a). Previously, we reported the origin of
these S-type deviations from ideal Weibull behavior, i.e., straight
dotted lines in Weibull plots, as the strongly interacting pores in
brittle system. The origin of these deviations in FDMed materials
were not discussed in the literature, but pores are the largest de-
fects in FDMed systems and an increase in porosity increases the
probability of large pores and pore clusters that cause failure. The
effects of large pores on the stochastic fracture of FDMed com-
posites were discussed in our previous report, where we showed
that the introduction of vibrations reduce porosity and pore size
variations, improving not only the sf but also the Weibull modulus
(Keles et al., 2017). In this context, we investigated the amount of
the porosity in each batch and specimen.
We observed batch-to-batch porosity changes even for the same
material and same FDM printing parameters (Fig. 7a). The Weibull
plots for TS of ABS1 and ABS2 also reveal the origin of S-type de-
viations in the mechanical properties (Fig. 7b) (Keleş et al., 2013a-
b). We color coded the specimen porosity in this Weibull plot.
The upper tail of TS consists of specimens with porosity <16 vol%
and the lower tail specimens with porosity >19 vol% (Fig. 7b). The
TS of specimens with porosity between 16 and 19 vol% represent a
transition from high to low TS. It should be noted that local pore
clusters and connecting pores are the largest defects causing fail-
ure. Hence, specimens can break at low sf even if they have low
porosity because of pore-to-pore stress interactions or locally
connecting inter-bead pores.
The porosity of FDMed polymers can vary due to the positional
nozzle (Keleş, 2018b). In our experiments, we observed significant
inter-bead porosity that is due to the positional variations in the
deposited beads. That is, the beads can be deposited close to each
other or far away from each other. Therefore, the porosity of each
batch varies. In this context, the relatively limited variation in the
batch-to-batch porosity of ABS3 can be due to smaller sample size
(Fig. 7a). We tested three batches of ABS3, five batches of ABS2 and
eleven batches of ABS1 and virgin ABS. Therefore, one might
observe an increase in variation of ABS3 porosity with increasing
number of batches.
3.4. Effect of recycling on the ABS chemistry and thermal properties
Porosity revealed the origin of strength reduction in the FDMed
virgin and recycled ABS, but the reduction in εf with recycling is not
directly related to porosity. For example, ABS3 has higher strength
at the lower tail than ABS1 or ABS2. The εf, however, decreases
consistently with each round of recycling. We performed GPC, DSC,
TGA, FTIR, and XRF characterizations on the ABS samples to reveal
the effect of recycling on the polymer chemistry and molecular
structure to identify possible causes of decreasing εf.
An insignificant change in molecular weight or polydispersity
index with recycling was observed, which shows limited chain
scission or cross-linking occurred during thermal and mechanical
processing (Table 3). This observation contradicts the literature on
Table 3
GPC, DSC, and TGA results for virgin and recycled ABS: weight-average molecular
weight (Mw), number-average molecular weight (Mn), polydispersity index (PDI),
glass transition temperature (Tg), heat capacity (Cp), and thermal decomposition
temperature (Td).
Sample Mn (g/mol) Mw (g/mol) PDI Tg Cp Td

variations in the deposited beads, inherited porosity from the Virgin ABS 53,382 105,280 1.97 105.5 0.728 500
filament, and porosity occurring due to high temperature extrusion ABS1 53,035 106,390 2.01 104.7 0.578 501
ABS2 53,637 107,530 2.00 103.9 0.479 506
ABS3 53,966 106,380 1.97 104.1 0.442 508

Fig. 7. a) Change in average tensile strength with porosity for each batch of virgin ABS in red, ABS1 in Black, ABS2 in blue, and ABS3 in green. b) Weibull plot showing the dis-
tribution of ABS1 and ABS2 tensile strength with porosity of each sample color coded in grey for porosity P < 16 vol%, orange for P ¼ 16e19 vol%, and in blue for P > 19 vol%. (For
interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
8 A.K. Cress et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021) 123689

raw injection molded recycled ABS, where PDI values increased up

to 10 fold, while MW decreased 10 fold when processed at 210  C
(Wang et al., 2015). It is possible that our starting ABS filament
contains a chain extender, which somewhat limits degradation
compared to the referenced waste electronic ABS. TGA was also
performed on four samples of filament. The data shows a slight
increase in the location of the minima of the derivative curves (Td)
with respect to temperature. The Td increased with each round of
recycling (Fig. 8 and Table 3). This indicates an increase in thermal
stability with recycling and therefore a lack of the chain scission
normally found with polymer degradation (Liu et al., 2017).
Significant overlap was observed between all the FTIR peaks
suggesting that virgin and recycled ABS are spectrally identical
within the detection limit of FTIR analysis (5e20 wt %, Fig. 9). This
Fig. 9. Overlay of FTIR spectra for a) reference ABS sample (orange curve), b) virgin ABS
suggests that the recycling process has minimal effect on the bulk
(red), c) ABS1 (green), d) ABS2 (blue), e) ABS3 (pink). (For interpretation of the ref-
composition of the samples. Functionalities consistent with acry- erences to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this
lonitrile (2238 cm1), butadiene (967 cm1) and styrene (3027, article.)
1493, 1602 and 702 cm1) were observed in the samples. The only
difference between the ABS reference spectrum and that of the
samples were the peaks at 1730 and 1760 cm1, which are likely Table 4
The composition of virgin and recycled ABS characterized by XRF. Units are in wt. %.
from an aliphatic ester based additive in the sample. The apparent
decrease in intensity of the 1730 cm1 peak, and growth of the Element Virgin ABS ABS1 ABS2 ABS3
1760 cm1 peak may correspond with a chain-extension reaction C 84.3 84.9 85.0 84.0
reported elsewhere (Wang et al., 2015). However, there is not O 8.1 7.3 7.2 8.7
enough data to make a conclusive characterization about the N 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.0
S 0.068 0.067 0.069 0.072
presence of chain extension reagents in the post-consumer recy-
Mg 0.040 0.044 0.047 0.044
cled ABS used in this study. An increase in intensity of carbonyl Ti 0.027 0.035 0.054 0.047
peaks in the 1680-1750 cm1 range that was observed for recycled Na 0.022 0.018 0.026 0.021
injection molded ABS was not detected in our study on ABS recy- Cl 0.021 0.084 0.026 0.004
cled FDM filament. We propose that the lower operational tem- Si 0.007 0.007 0.009 0.010
Al 0.006 0.003 0.004 0.015
peratures of both the filament extrusion (180  C) and FDM K 0.004 0.004 0.004 0.004
extrusion (235  C) compared with the operational temperature of Ca 0.004 0.004 0.005 0.004
injection molding (270  C), as well as the limited mechanical Fe 0.003 0.017 0.018 0.038
degradation from the single screw extruder, caused minimal P 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001
degradation of the polymer chains.
The elemental composition of the virgin ABS and the changes in
this composition with recycling are given in Table 4. The elemental compositions indicate a lack of both flame retardant additives
(significant Br, Sb, and P content) or PVC blends (Cl). Also, a notable
increase in iron and titanium can be seen during each processing
step. This can be attributed to the wearing of metal components
used in the processing and printing of the ABS, such as the extruder,
FDM nozzle, and shredder. The accumulation of elements with
recycling could affect the mechanical behavior of the ABS. These
chemical characterizations did not provide significant changes in
the ABS chemistry and structure. Further investigations are needed
to identify the origins of the reduction in εf of recycled ABS.

4. Conclusions

We investigated the effect of recycling on the mechanical

behavior, molecular structure, and chemical composition of FDMed
ABS. A total of 317 tensile tests were performed to observe the
changes in stochastic mechanical properties of FDMed ABS with
recycling. Based on our experimental investigation, the following
conclusions can be made:

1. Recycling decreased the mechanical performance of FDMed

ABS. By the third round of recycling, the strain at break
decreased by 25% and tensile strength decreased by 10%.
2. Recycling had minimal effect on the tensile strength of the fil-
aments, indicating that the reduced mechanical properties of
the FDMed ABS are due to porosity induced by FDM.
Fig. 8. Overlay of TGA curves for virgin ABS in red, ABS1 in black, ABS2 in blue,
3. Weibull statistics were used to quantify the lower tail of the
andABS3 in green. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, mechanical property variations, because bi- or multi-modal
the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.) variations were observed. The strain at break varied between
 A.K. Cress et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021) 123689
~3% and 7% strain, which is larger than the variations in TS, εTS
and sf.
4. S-type deviations from ideal Weibull behavior were observed in
tensile strength distributions of FDMed ABS. Variations in
porosity was found as the main reason for the S-type behavior.
Higher TS > 31 MPa was observed for porosity <16 vol% and
lower TS < 27 MPa for porosity >19 vol%.
5. Significant batch-to-batch porosity variations were observed for
FDMed ABS ranging from 9 vol% to 22 vol%.
6. DSC, TGA, FTIR, and GPC characterization of the chemical
composition and thermogravimetric behavior of recycled ABS
showed no noticeable change in molecular structure of the ABS
after each round of recycling. XRF revealed an increase in iron
with recycling.
Overall, the FDM processing parameters should be optimized to
achieve better mechanical performance in FDMed recycled ABS.
Specifically, parameters affecting porositydair gap, extrusion ratio,
nozzle temperaturedmust be adjusted to satisfy design re-
quirements. In addition, vibration-assisted FDM can be used to
further reduce the porosity of FDMed materials (Keleş et al., 2018).
An improved FDM processing will enable upcycling of consumer
waste towards higher quality products. Future work should include
a data-driven approach to steer the product space towards the use
of recycled materials that are strong, tough, lightweight, and multi-
functional (Hidalgo, 2007; Suh, 2020; Karakoç, 2020).
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Alex K. Cress: Investigation, Methodology, Data curation,
Writing - original draft. Jimmy Huynh: Investigation. Eric H.
Anderson: Investigation, Formal analysis, Software. Ryan O’neill:
Investigation. Yanika Schneider: Investigation, Data curation,
€
Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Ozgür Keleş: Conceptu-
alization, Supervision, Project administration, Writing - original
draft, Writing - review & editing, Formal analysis, Visualization.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
Authors thank Chester Simocko for performing the GPC
experiments.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123689.
References
Ahn, S.H., Montero, M., Odell, D., Roundy, S., Wright, P.K., 2002. Anisotropic material
properties of fused deposition modeling ABS. Rapid Prototyp. J. 8 (4), 248e257.
Allwood, J.M., Carruth, M.A., Cullen, J.M., 2012. Sustainable Materials with Both Eyes
Open. UIT Cambridge Limited, United Kingdom.
Arnold, J.C., Alston, S., Holder, A., 2009. Void formation due to gas evolution during
the recycling of AcrylonitrileeButadieneeStyrene copolymer (ABS) from waste
9
electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Polym. Degrad. Stabil. 94,
693e700.
Baechler, C., DeVeuno, M., Pearce, J.M., 2013. Distributed recycling of waste polymer
into RepRap feedstock. Rapid Protyping Journal 19e2, 118e125.
Bai, X., Isaac, D.H., Smith, K., 2007. Reprocessing acrylonitrileebutadieneestyrene
plastics: structureeproperty relationships. Polym. Eng. Sci. 47, 120e130.
Bellini, A., Guceri, S., 2003. Mechanical characterization of parts fabricated using
fused deposition modeling. Rapid Prototyp. J. 9e4, 252e264.
Brackett, D., Ashcroft, I., Hague, R., 2011. Topology optimization for additive
manufacturing. In: Proceedings of the Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium,
Austin, TX, 1, pp. 348e362.
Chen, D., Heyer, S., Ibbotson, S., Salonitis, K., G, J., Thiede, S., 2015. Direct digital
manufacturing: definition, evolution, and sustainability implications. J. Clean.
Prod. 107, 615e625.
Curran, T., Williams, I.D., 2012. A zero waste vision for industrial networks in
Europe. J. Hazard Mater. 207e208, 3e7.
Dawoud, M., Taha, I., Ebeid, S., 2016. Mechanical behaviour of ABS: an experimental
study using FDM and injection moulding techniques. J. Manuf. Process. 21,
39e45.
de Azevedo, A.R., Alexandre, J., Pessanha, L.S.P., da St Manha ~es, R., de Brito, J.,
Marvila, M.T., 2019. Characterizing the paper industry sludge for
environmentally-safe disposal. Waste Manag. 95, 43e52.
Dei Rossi, J., Keles, O., Viswanathan, V., 2019. Fused Deposition Modeling with
Added Vibrations: A Parametric Study on the Accuracy of Printed Parts, vol.
59377. ASME IMECE. V02AT02A060.
EPA, 2016, December. Advancing sustainable materials management: 2014 tables
and figures. Environ. Prot. Agency.
Faludi, J., Cline-Thomas, N., Agrawala, S., 2017. 3D Printing and its Environmental
Implications. In OECD, the Next Production Revolution: Implications for Gov-
ernments and Business. OECD Publishing, Paris.
Geerken, T., Schmidt, J., Boonen, K., Christis, M., Merciai, S., 2019. Assessment of the
potential of a circular economy in open economieseCase of Belgium. J. Clean.
Prod. 227, 683e699.
Gilmer, E.L., Miller, D., Chatham, C., Zawaski, C., Fallon, J., Pekkanen, A., et al., 2017.
Model analysis of feedstock behavior in fused filament fabrication: enabling
rapid materials screening. Polymer 1e11.
Hart, K.R., Frketic, J.B., Brown, J.R., 2018. Recycling of meal-ready-to-eat (MRE)
pouches into polymer filament for material extrusion additive manufacturing.
Additive Manufacturing 21, 536e543.
Hidalgo, C.A., Klinger, B., Baraba si, A.L., Hausmann, R., 2007. The product space
conditions the development of nations. Science 317 (5837), 482e487.
Hunt, E.J., Zhang, C., Anzalone, N., Pearce, J.M., 2015. Polymer recycling codes for
distributed manufacturing with 3-D printers. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 97,
24e30.
Jones, R., Haufe, P., Sells, E., Iravani, P., Olliver, V., Palmer, C., Bowyer, A., 2011.
RepRap - the replicating rapid prototyper. Robotica 29e1, 177e191.
€ 2020. A predictive failure framework for brittle porous ma-
Karakoç, A., Keleş, O.,
terials via machine learning and geometric matching methods. J. Mater. Sci.
1e14.
Kaza, Silpa, Yao, Lisa, Bhada-Tata, Perinaz, Woerden, Frank Van, 2018. What a Waste
2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050. Urban Develop-
ment Series. World Bank, Washington, DC.
€ García, R.E., Bowman, K.J., 2013a. Deviations from Weibull statistics in
Keleş, O.,
brittle porous materials. Acta Mater. 61 (19), 7207e7215.
€ García, R.E., Bowman, K.J., 2013b. Stochastic failure of isotropic, brittle
Keleş, O.,
materials with uniform porosity. Acta Mater. 61 (8), 2853e2862.
€ Blevins, C.W., Bowman, K.J., 2017. The effect of build orientation on the
Keleş, O.,
mechanical reliability of 3D printed parts. Rapid Prototyping 23 (2).
€ Anderson, E.H., Huynh, J., Gelb, J., Freund, J., Karakoç, A., 2018b. Stochastic
Keleş, O.,
fracture of additively manufactured porous composites. Sci. Rep. 8 (1), 1e12.
€ Huynh, J., Anderson, E., 2018a. Mechanical reliability of short carbon fiber
Keleş, O.,
reinforced ABS produced via vibration assisted fused deposition modeling.
Rapid Protoyping Journal 24 (9), 1572e1578.
Kreiger, M., Mulder, M., Glover, A., Pearce, J., 2014. Life cycle analysis of distributed
recycling of post-consumer high density polyethylene for 3-D printing fila-
ment". J. Clean. Prod. 70, 90e96.
Kumar, S., Czekanski, A., 2017. Development of filaments using selective laser sin-
tering waste powder. J. Clean. Prod. 165, 1188e1196.
Laist, D.W., 1987. Overview of the biological effects of lost and discarded plastic
debris in the marine environment. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 18 (6), 319e326.
Lanzotti, A., Martorelli, M., Staino, G., 2015. Understanding process parameter ef-
fects of RepRap open-source three-dimensional printers through a design of
experiments approach". J. Manuf. Sci. Eng. 137, 1e6.
Liu, G., Liao, Y., Ma, X., 2017. Thermal behavior of vehicle plastic blends contained
acrylonitile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) in pyrolysis using TG-FTIR. Waste Manag.
61, 315e326.
Meyers, M.A., Chawla, K.K., 2009. Mechanical Behavior of Materials. Cambridge
University Press, New York.
Najmon, J.C., Raeisi, S., Tovar, A., 2019. 2-Review of additive manufacturing tech-
nologies and applications in the aerospace industry. Additive Manufacturing for
the Aerospace Industry 7e31.
Plastics Europe, 2018. Plastics - the Facts 2018. Plastics Europe.s, Brussels.
Ragaert, K., Delva, L., Van Geem, K., 2017. Mechanical and chemical recycling of solid
plastic waste. Waste Manag. 69, 24e58.
Rahimi, M., Esfahanian, M., Moradi, M., 2014. Effect of reprocessing on shrinkage
10 A.K. Cress et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021) 123689
and mechanical properties of ABS and investigating the proper blend of virgin
and recycled ABS in injection molding. J. Mater. Process. Technol. 214,
2359e2365.
Riise, B.L., Biddle, M.B., Fisher, M.M., 2000. X-RAY FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY
IN PLASTICS RECYCLING. American Plastics Council.
Rodriguez, J.F., Thomas, J.P., Renaud, J.E., 2001. Mechanical behavior of acrylonitrile
butadiene styrene (ABS) fused deposition materials. Experimental investiga-
tion. Rapid Prototyp. J. 7 (3), 148e158.
Sanchez, F., Boudaoud, H., Hoppe, S., Camargo, M., 2017. Polymer recycling in an
open-source additive manufacturing context: mechanical issues. Additive
Manufacturing 17, 87e105.
Scaffaro, R., Botta, L., Di Benedetto, G., 2012. Physical properties of virgin-recycled
ABS blends: effect of post-consumer content and of reprocessing cycles. Eur.
Polym. J. 48 (3), 637e648.
Slic3r, 2016, June 3. Retrieved from. http://slic3r.org.
Song, R., Telenko, C., 2017. Material and energy loss due to human and machine
error in commercial FDM printers. J. Clean. Prod. 148, 895e904.
Suh, C., Fare, C., Warren, J.A., Pyzer-Knapp, E.O., 2020. Evolving the materials
genome: how machine learning is fueling the next generation of materials
discovery. Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 50s.
Sule, S.S., Petsiuk, A.L., Pearce, J.M., 2019, April 18. Open source completely 3-D
printable centrifuge. Preprints 1e21.
Tanaka, K., Takada, H., Yamashita, R., Mizukawa, K., Fukuwaka, M.-a., Watanuki, Y.,
2013. Accumulation of plastic-derived chemicals in tissues of seabirds ingesting
marine plastics. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 69 (1e2), 219e222.
Toczyłowska-Mamin  ska, R., 2017. Limits and perspectives of pulp and paper
industry wastewater treatmenteA review. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 78,
764e772.
Turner, B.N., Strong, R., Gold, S.A., 2014. A review of melt extrusion additive
manufacturing processes. Rapid Prototyp. J. 20 (3), 192e204.
Tymrak, B.M., Kreiger, M., Pearce, J.M., 2014. Mechanical properties of components
fabricated with open-source 3-D printers under realistic environmental con-
ditions. Mater. Des. 58, 242e246.
Wang, J., Li, Y., Song, J., He, M., Song, J., Xia, K., 2015. Recycling of acrylonitrile-
butadiene-styrene (ABS) copolymers from waste electrical and electronic
equipment (WEEE) using an epoxy-based chain extender. Polym. Degrad. Stabil.
112, 167e174.
Weibull, W., 1951. A statistical distribution function of wide applicability. J. Appl.
Mech. 18.3, 293e297.
Wittbrodt, B.T., Glover, A.G., Laureto, J., Anzalone, G.C., Oppliger, D., Irwin, J.L.,
Pearce, J.M., 2013. Life-cycle economic analysis of distributed manufacturing
with open-source 3-D printers. Mechatronics 23, 713e726.
Wohlers Associates Inc, 2016. Wohlers Report 2016. Wohlers Associates.
Zhang, L., Xu, Z., 2019. Towards minimization of secondary wastes: element recy-
cling to achieve future complete resource recycling of electronic wastes. Waste
Manag. 96, 175e180.
Zhao, P., Rao, C., Gu, F., Sharmin, N., Fu, J., 2018. Close-looped recycling of polylactic
acid used in 3D printing: an experimental investigation and life cycle assess-
ment. J. Clean. Prod. 197, 1046e1055.
Zhong, S., Pearce, J.M., 2018. Tightening the loop on the circular economy: coupled
distributed recycling and manufacturing with recyclebot and RepRap 3-D
printing. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 128, 48e58.