The Environmental Impact of Desktop 3D Printing in a Distributed Manufacturing Model: Analyzing Spare Plastic Parts Fabricated by Home Users

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies are challenging the existing industrial paradigms and creating expectations that the relationship between manufacturing and the environment can also be different. One of these expectations is that greenhouse gas emissions may be reduced when people fabricate their own products at home because product transportation that is required by the conventional manufacturing model is avoided. Although avoiding product transportation can be beneficial for the environment, the effects of 3D printing in a distributed manufacturing model are essentially unknown. Data on environmental impact from spare plastic parts were obtained from conventional and distributed manufacturing processes by a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software, the Ecoinvent-3 database and electricity consumption measurements. The LCA was conducted to compare the environmental impact of spare plastic parts fabricated by two main models: 3D printing in distributed manufacturing and injection molding in conventional manufacturing. This assessment considered that spare plastic parts were manufactured overseas in conventional manufacturing, while in distributed manufacturing, parts were fabricated by users at home using a desktop 3D printer. Therefore, the aim of this study is to answer the following question: is the environmental impact of ABS-made spare plastic parts fabricated at home by a desktop 3D printer lower than that of similar ABS parts made by conventional manufacturing? The findings show that the environmental impact caused by energy consumption used by a desktop 3D printer is significantly higher than any benefit obtained from removing the need to transport products overseas in the conventional manufacturing model. In fact, TRACI mid-point results demonstrate that global warming of distributed manufacturing is 11 times higher than that of conventional manufacturing. These findings not only highlight the environmental impact of desktop 3D printing in a distributed manufacturing model, but also justify the importance of using quantitative methods for environmental assessments of new technologies.