R3direct to create 3D printed street furniture using recycled materials

Sustainability and environmental issues are at the forefront of society today in all areas. 
Many companies are taking this issue seriously, using the benefits of 3D printing to invent materials, products and manufacturing processes that have a minimal impact on the environment. R3direct is one of them; this Italian startup uses large-scale 3D printing to make parts from materials made from recycled waste. 
Their projects are recognized and supported by the public administration as well as by renowned private initiatives in the field of art and architecture. We learn more from its co-founder Stefano Giovacchini!

"My name is Stefano Giovacchini, I'm a designer and co-founder of r3direct, a company experimenting with the use of recycled and sustainable materials for large-format 3D printing. I have also 'embraced' the circular economy for years and teach 'Design for the Circular Economy' at the Milan School of Sustainability. At r3direct I am particularly involved in researching the form and use of new materials from circular and sustainable supply chains. I discovered 3D printing as a lover of open source technologies and free software: I attended the LUG (Linux User Group) in my city, Lucca, and my friend and I decided to buy one of the first kits of the Rep Rap project. It was quite an adventure to get to the first seal, but it was an experience I still remember with great pleasure. Thanks to 3D printing, I had the opportunity to invent a new job. We are currently producing products and services that would not exist without 3D printers.

How did r3direct come about? What is your mission?

" R3direct was born thanks to a call for new circular economy ideas issued by the municipality of Capannori (LU) (a famous "recycling municipality" and home of zero waste), in which I participated with what later became my partners, Cristiano Cavani and Marco Paganucci, with the idea of recovering plastic from separate waste collection and creating sustainable products for citizens with it. They liked the idea and we won the tender. After one year, we started research and development with Revet SpA, a company that separates multi-material waste from 90 percent of Tuscany, for the use of recycled plastic granules in large-format 3D printing. To date, we are still partnering with Revet on various projects.”


Can you tell us about the most interesting projects that r3direct has worked on?

" Precisely because R3direct works a lot in collaboration with designers, many interesting projects were born, but in general the public furniture is the one that gives us the greatest satisfaction. Desko® is an innovative model of street furniture designed by four young Florentine architects for learning and working outdoors; it is self-sufficient because it is powered by a solar panel. We do both engineering and manufacturing, and in March we will install two in a park in Florentine. Another notable collaboration is with the architect Mario Cucinella, for whom we made 80 stools for his Design with Nature installation, which was presented at the Milan Furniture Fair 2022. To make the stools, we used around 280 kg of recycled plastic collected from door to door .”

The stools made by R3direct to a design by Mario Cucinella Architects and exhibited at the 2022 Milan Furniture Fair.

"With the School of Sustainability in Milan, we also printed about 40 places for Kaboom, a public event dedicated to sustainability held in Bologna in 2020. I would also like to mention the objects that I personally design that I am particularly attached to, such as the ceiling lamp Magma, printed in 'dirty' urban waste and covered on the inside with gold leaf, which was created in 2019 as a manifesto of our activity and displayed at various international exhibitions."

Can you tell us more about r3direct's USE project?

"The USE project has engaged us for years: it is a research and design project that brings together industry, designers and local government. The idea stems from the thesis of a young architect Giulia del Grande, which envisages covering the concrete anti-terrorist barriers (unfortunately still useful and required by law during public events) with a system of modular elements that provide a service to citizens: benches, pots and bike racks.

We at r3direct offered to develop the first prototypes and the result was the first example of using this material in public furniture using 3D printers. The result was the creation of the USE benches, one of which was installed in the historic center of Lucca.

It is made of plastic from recycled polyacrylate packaging (Tetrapak type), a mixture of polyethylene with a small percentage of aluminum, produced in a factory in our province, but unique in Europe. Here from Recycled Tetrapck come both recycled paper objects and granules that we have tested and used in our large format 3D printers. The USE project is still in the experimental phase, but it will become a full-fledged product by 2023.”

Art is also at the heart of your business. How do you use 3D printing for this industry?

“The use of 3D printing to produce art objects is a growing market for us, which we manage in parallel with research into sustainable materials. For this sector we use large format printers with recycled plastic for large works, for example we made a 2.2 meter Fellini sculpture. Instead, we use medium format resin printers for objects that need more attention to detail. We make one-of-a-kind items or models for mold or bronze casting. More and more artists are using digital tools to create their works and need professionals to materialize their work.”

What are r3direct's future projects?

"We are involved on different fronts, but the project that interests us the most is the creation of a school dedicated to additive manufacturing, which was born last summer as its first edition. SMAC, chool of Additive Manufacturing in Coreglia Antelminelli, a small village in the province of Lucca, is the idea of a seasonal school of professional specialization where theory and practice come together. This school draws inspiration from the ancient school "Di Disegno e Plastica" founded in 1883 by Carlo Vanni and aims to be a modern extension designed to promote new technologies intended as a flywheel for new local economies. 

The 3D printed Magma ceiling lamp

Any final words for our readers?

"Don't give up on the desire to experiment with 3D printing! Our world has expressed only a small fraction of its true potential and is still growing.”


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