WHERE WE ARE NOW
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Pledge To Reduce Our Carbon Footprint
HATCHBOX is on a mission to make our company, our industry, and the 3D printing community more environmentally friendly. Every decision we make will do more than turn HATCHBOX into an eco-friendly company. Sustainability will become part of our customers’ 3D printing experience just by using our filaments. Two initiatives we have already started include:
- Finding ways to reduce our carbon footprint.
- Designing more recyclable products and packaging.
By creating our own environmental impact, we hope your choice of HATCHBOX 3D printing filaments helps you improve your local environment and make the world a better place.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
We believe in 3D printing’s revolutionary potential to drive circular economies and environmental sustainability. Yet we still have a long way to go before that vision becomes reality.
We believe in the power of individual people and businesses to address environmental issues. Even the simplest changes can help the environment by reducing waste, eliminating pollution, and slowing climate change.
We believe that, together, we can protect our planet and provide a greener, more sustainable world for future generations.
Additive manufacturing and home 3D printing were supposed to be better for the environment than traditional subtractive techniques. But that has not always happened. Many plastic filaments are made from petroleum products rather than more sustainable materials. Even when biodegradable, plastics are buried or burned rather than recycled or composted.
HATCHBOX is already making 3D printing more sustainable by producing filaments from NatureWorks Ingeo biopolymers and by using recycled materials in our packaging. Eco-friendly products and recyclable packaging set HATCHBOX on a course to become better citizens of Earth.
WHAT IS INGEO?
In many ways, Nature is the original additive manufacturer, combining sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to build our environment. NatureWorks takes a similar approach by turning sustainably-grown plants into its Ingeo brand of 3D printing-optimized PLA materials. That is why Ingeo PLA has a carbon footprint 75%-90% lower than other polymers used to create filament. In effect, the PLA filament you buy from HATCHBOX started as atmospheric carbon dioxide absorbed by fields of plants.
BIODEGRADABLE PLA
Biodegradability is another reason we chose Ingeo PLA as the raw material for HATCHBOX PLA filament. Polylactic acid is a biopolymer composed of lactic acid chains. When exposed to heat and moisture, these chains biodegrade — breaking into smaller and smaller pieces until only lactic acid molecules are left. Thanks to four billion years of evolution, lots of bio-organisms love to eat lactic acid and leave behind nutrients. Composting facilities combine these organisms with the right temperature and humidity levels to turn waste PLA into compost within a few months.
Fully Recyclable Cardboard Boxes
Cardboard recycling is another way we help the environment. You might ask, isn’t cardboard biodegradable? Why is throwing it away a problem? Every year, America dumps 146 billion tons of solid waste in landfills — and paper products account for about 12% of that waste. On top of that, every ton of new cardboard consumes 3 tons of trees.
Fortunately, it’s very easy to turn old cardboard into new cardboard. We use recycled materials in all our packaging. Cardboard recycling is easy in most communities so shipping our products inside recyclable materials lets you complete the cycle. As a side note, we are trying to find zero-VOC paints to reduce our packaging’s environmental impact even further.
HOW WE ARE CHANGING
HOW WE ARE CHANGING
Biodegradable plastic and cardboard recycling are only the first steps towards making HATCHBOX truly environmentally friendly. We have several green projects underway that will improve our sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint. These projects focus on finding more sustainable and recyclable materials for the HATCHBOX products you buy. Most importantly, we will do this in ways that make your own green efforts easier.
new cardboard spools in development
One of the top recycling questions we get from customers is whether we will ever wind our filaments around cardboard spools. The good news is that we have a 100% cardboard spool under development right now. Enhanced features will make the empty spools useful enough to keep while letting you recycle them easily. We plan to introduce these cardboard spools in 2023, eventually replacing plastic spools entirely.
greener materials moving forward
Our team has a long-term project that is exploring how other sustainable materials can give us more ways to help the environment. Hemp, for example, grows faster and contains more cellulose than trees. These properties could make hemp a better material for our filament spools and packaging.
In addition, NatureWorks wants to produce Ingeo PLA from atmospheric carbon dioxide. Besides reducing greenhouse gasses directly, cutting out plants would eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from crop production and transportation.
how these changes help the environment
By creating products and packaging that are biodegradable or fully recyclable, we can make an immediate, positive environmental impact by:
- Easing the burden on landfills.
- Minimizing pollution from landfills and incinerators.
- Reducing the production of raw materials.
- Cutting energy consumption.
Just as important, sustainable products and packaging reduce greenhouse gas emissions in multiple ways. With the right designs, more carbon dioxide gets extracted from the atmosphere and less gets emitted during manufacturing and transportation.
WHAT WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE
Everyone at HATCHBOX wants to do their part to protect the environment and help our planet thrive. Sharing our plans for recyclable packaging and more sustainable filaments that biodegrade helps you understand how your choices can have an impact.
Making it easier for you to reduce, reuse, and recycle is a small step towards sustainability. When we all take steps like these, we can make a difference and create a better future for everyone on Earth.