3D printers are the latest craze. But is this revolutionary manufacturing technology environmentally sustainable? Credit: Urbee 2 Some say 3D printers will change the face of manufacturing forever, spelling the end of mass production and ushering in a new era of personalised manufacturing. Others disagree, insisting they will merely fulfil a niche role for hobbyists. Either way, like all new forms of technology, 3D printing will come with its own set of environmental impacts. Also known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing has been in use for more than 30 years. A material, usually plastic or metal, is heated and fused layer by layer to build up a 3D object, with the design directed by a computer. The invention of the open-source desktop 'RepRap' printer at Bath University in 2004 has since spawned a proliferation of similar machines, with a raft of companies now selling their own commercial versions. 3D printing is a useful weapon in the fight against planned obsolescence, extending the life of products after a damaged or worn part is out of production-which has to be a good thing for sustainability. A recent economic analysis 1 of home-based 3D printers has shown the average family could save thousands of dollars by printing commonly used objects at home, instead of buying ready-made. But it's not just about consumer products. 3D printing has made its way into science laboratories. Medical researchers have already printed personalised hip replacements, skull patches and prostheses. The aerospace industry and NASA have welcomed the technology, with lighter 'printed' parts leading to massive fuel and greenhouse gas savings. CSIRO is in on the 3D printing revolution, too, using the light metal, titanium, for example, to print tags for tracking big fish such as marlin, tuna and sharks. Credit: CSIRO Waste and transport factors So what are the environmental impacts of 3D printing? Is it really a 'greener' form of manufacturing? One clear advantage is its ability to reduce waste, especially when using metal.
Twelve years ago, kikuyu grass was wreaking havoc on the seabird habitat of Montague Island, nine kilometres from the southern New South Wales coast. Revegetation programs have since started to push back the weed front. In February this year, ECOS joined a group of 16 volunteers from Narooma to find out what effect the weed invasion and revegetation are having on the island's avian inhabitants. Credit: Kath KovacBuffeted by wind and lashed with rain, Montague Island is a lonely place, exposed to the elements and isolated from the mainland. But, it's also beautiful: a welcome refuge from city roads, traffic and crowds. Barunguba, as it was known by the Aboriginal people of the Walbanga and Djiringanj lands across the water, was once a fertile hunting ground where an abundance of seabird eggs, muttonbirds and penguins could be gathered.Declared a nature reserve in 1990 and managed since by the New South Wales National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS), the island remains a breeding ground for thousands of pairs of seabirds, including the world's third-largest colony of little penguins.Shearwaters -wedge-tailed, short-tailed and sooty -crested terns, rails, sooty oystercatchers and silver gulls also make their home here, while regular visitors include sea eagles and peregrine falcons.
Around 2007-2009, at the end of the Millennium Drought, large areas of the lower Murray-Darling Basin in South Australia had slowly turned from fertile, irrigated farmland and ecologically diverse wetlands into dried out wastelands of cracked soil and mud. Credit: Rob Fitzpatrick, CSIRO The soil in much of this area contains iron sulfide minerals. While submerged, this sulfidic mud was harmless. But, during the drought, the area was exposed to oxygen in the air for the first time in more than 100 years. The sulfide in the soil reacted with the oxygen in the air, forming sulfuric acid. The resultant soils, known as acid sulfate soils with sulfuric material, have a pH of less than 4, and can be as low as 1.6 in some areas-almost as strong as car battery acid. 1 Nothing can survive in soils like these. Joanne and Barry Pfeiffers were among the many farmers badly hit by the drought in South Australia's Lower Murray Irrigation Area-an area underlain with acid sulfate soils. With their irrigation entitlements cut and unable to keep their paddocks watered, the Pfeiffers' once-profitable dairy farm just dried out. 'The soil cracked, all of our irrigation infrastructure destabilised and fell over-pretty much all of our 84 hectares was totally destroyed,' Mrs Pfeiffers recalls. 'We are talking about cracking to at least 1200 mm deep and up to 600 mm wide. You couldn't drive a four-wheel motorbike down there, you couldn't even get a tractor in. We even lost about 35 cows that fell in the holes and injured themselves.' In wetland areas, previously submerged lake beds in the Lower Lakes, including around Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert, were completely exposed. Several Ramsar-listed and many other wetlands became dry and lifeless. 'With time, though, it is possible to grow wetland plants there.'
Imagine light one million times brighter than the Sun that can be precisely focused onto objects at the molecular level. What could you see with such a light? And, could you use it to help put industrial by-products to good use? Credit: nadia/istock This light source can be found at the Australian Synchrotron. Whizzing around circular tunnels inside the synchrotron are electrons travelling so close to the speed of light that time slows down for them: as predicted by the theory of relativity. As they circle inside the tunnels, the electrons emit intense beams of light, from infrared to X-ray wavelengths, which are diverted down 'beamlines' extending off the main ring. While synchrotron light is used to study a huge range of objects, from human cells to Renaissance artwork, some researchers are focusing the light on industrial by-products-and coming up with smart ways to reuse them.
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