PLA Filament, an eco-friendly plastic

No one is unaware of the current problem with plastics; their massive use and waste management is causing serious environmental problems.
The consumption of this type of material is increasing, of which only 30% is recycled and a large part of the untreated plastic reaches the sea and our beaches. That is why we want to talk to you today about our PLA filaments.

But what can we do? ➡︎La key is in a change of mentality, it is necessary a more rational use of this type of products, advocating the elimination of packaging of all types of products and buying in bulk. And, although these types of actions are the basis, it is clear that we will continue to use plastics for their versatility and durability, so the other tool we have is the change of materials towards eco-friendly plastics.
PLA is one of these plastics, but why do we say that it is an eco-friendly plastic? Above all, for two reasons:

• It is a plastic whose raw material is starch, which can be obtained from various plants.
• Its residues are compostable.

Why PLA is Environmentally Friendly

As we have already indicated, starch is used for the manufacture of PLA plastic, which can be obtained from different crops: beet, corn, cassava, sugar cane, potato, etc. Therefore, the production of raw material can be adapted to the crops of each area. With this, we avoid the production of massive crops in an area of the planet to obtain the raw material and long transports to the production areas.

By using vegetable materials as raw material, these products are totally compostable, thus reducing one of the biggest problems derived from petroleum-based plastics, which is the treatment of their waste. ➡︎Esto is a great advantage of products made with PLA over conventional plastics, because if their use is widespread, their treatment is much simpler and with fewer emissions than the recycling of conventional plastic.

For this reason, 3D printing is increasingly opting for this type of sustainable and more environmentally friendly materials and, although at the beginning PLA filaments gave a series of problems, currently through research and innovation new PLA filaments are being obtained that leave behind all these problems.