How to Shred Plastic for Filastruder Recycling: A Beginner’s Guide
If you’ve ever thought about recycling plastic at home, you’ve probably come across the Filastruder, that nifty little machine that turns plastic waste into usable filament for 3D printing. But before you can start making your own filament, there’s one important step: shredding the plastic.
Sounds simple, right? But there are actually several ways to shred plastic, and the method you choose can make a big difference in how efficiently your Filastruder works. Whether you’re diving into this for the first time or looking to level up your plastic recycling game, we’ve got you covered. In this post, we’ll break down the 3 common ways you can shred plastic to get it ready for the Filastruder—so you can start turning your old bottles, containers, and failed prints into something new and useful. Ready to get shredding? Let’s jump in!
Just A Heads Up!
Before getting started I want to mention that the Filastruder is a very finicky machine and even with perfectly shredded plastic, you may end up with filament that does not meet your standards. Just know to stick with it, the Filastruder is a learning process, and honestly a cheap experiment in comparison to its substitutes. I encourage you to start recycling your shredded plastic mixed with virgin plastic pellets just until you get the hang of using the Filastruder. Anyway, let’s jump in for real this time!
Hand crank
The First method I will be talking about is using a hand cranked plastic shredder. Hand crank shredders are the most affordable and common shredders for small scale plastic recycling operations that are just getting started. You can easily find a fully assembled hand crank shredder on the Precious Plastic Bazar, for approximately $250. The hand crank shredder will
give you consistent plastic flakes and a good workout.
The one downside is that the machine is too small and weak for you to just dump in empty bottles, you will need to cut the plastic into strips first before shredding.
Automatic
The next level up from the hand cranked shredder is the automatic shredder. With the push of a button, the automatic shredder can take on almost any plastic shredding task. The size is a big step up but so is the price. Once again you can check the Precious Plastic Bazar for automatic shredders ranging in price from $2900 to $8,300. I would really only recommend buying an automatic shredder once you have the demand for products that require you to shred at a higher frequency.
DIY
The last option I want to give you is a lot more hands on but will hopefully save you some money. On the Precious Plastic Bazar, there are a lot of laser cut hand cranked shredder kits that are close to half the price of an assembled hand crank shredder. The prices can range from $130 to $300. There is assembly required for the kit, but if you want to get your hands even dirtier Precious Plastic Offers free plans if you want to build an automatic shredder from scratch.
There are also many other ways for you to shred plastic, you just need to get creative. My method was cutting a large hole in the top of an old paper shredder that my parents had lying around. This was honestly a pretty dangerous machine I was using looking back on it, but it got the job done surprisingly well.
Conclusion
And that’s a wrap on the different methods for shredding plastic to use with your Filastruder! Whether you’re going the DIY route, with hand-powered shredders, or investing in something more industrial, the goal is always the same: making sure your plastic is shredded to the right size for smooth extrusion. Remember, it’s all about trial and error to find the method that works best for your needs, but once you’ve got it down, you’ll be creating filament from recycled plastic like a pro. If you want some of my tips and tricks click here!
Don’t forget to keep experimenting with different plastics to see what works best, and feel free to share your shredding tips and tricks with others in the community. Happy shredding and extruding!