Nefilatek and its 100% recycled 3D printing filament

Nefilatek is a young Canadian company that has just launched its range of 100% recycled 3D printing filaments. Founded in 2018 after a successful Kickstarter campaign, the startup aims to offer more environmentally friendly materials and make 3D printing a more sustainable manufacturing method. Nefilatek thus joins the various projects combining sustainability and additive manufacturing, which are more and more numerous on the market. A recent report evaluated that filaments with eco-friendly properties would grow massively in the next 5 years. We met the founder of this startup, Bastien Lepoutre, who explained to us the process of creating recycled filaments and the future of recycling and 3D printing.

3DN: Can you introduce yourself and your link to 3D printing?

I just graduated as a mechanical engineer a month ago. Passionate about sustainable development since my childhood, I discovered 3D printing at the beginning of my studies. I have developed some personal and school projects involving 3D design and printing; this is how I joined this great 3D printing community.

On the left, Bastien Lepoutre – founder of Nefilatek, and Angel Chauffray – partner & R&D engineer | Photo Credits: Nefilatek

3DN: How did the idea of creating Nefilatek come about?

We were really excited about using 3D printing, we are convinced that it is a technology of the future. However, it is problematic because it uses a lot of energy and plastic, which is not coherent with my vision of sustainable development. As a result, we started looking for another way to make and see how we could reuse recycled plastic in this printing process.