A 16-Year-Old Built a 3D Printer Waste Recycler and Won $75,000

Benjamin Davis got his first 3D printer in fourth grade. By the time he was 16, the Bishop Feehan High School student had spent over 800 hours building a machine that recycles 3D printing waste into usable filament. He entered it at the 2025 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair and walked away with a $75,000 Regeneron Young Scientist Award.

The Problem

Up to 67 percent of the plastic used in a typical 3D printing project becomes waste. Failed prints, supports, leftover filament: it all piles up. Most home users cannot recycle it on site. Commercial filament recyclers exist, but they cost thousands of dollars and still produce inconsistent results.

The Machine

Davis's system combines two processes: pultrusion and extrusion. Pultrusion pushes shredded plastic through a heated die. Extrusion pulls the melted material into a filament. Running both together made the process roughly 45 percent more efficient than either method alone. The bill of materials came to about $1,500. Total project cost: $3,000. That makes it roughly 90 percent cheaper than commercial options.

The machine can produce up to one kilogram of filament per hour. Davis tested shredded PET bottles, PETG, and PLA. The tolerance sits at plus or minus 0.2 mm. Water cooling, air cooling, and spooling are all built into the frame. The electronics system is original.

Why It Matters

The real target is not industrial recyclers. It is schools, hobbyists, and small labs. A desktop unit means failed prints do not need to get shipped to a recycling facility. The plastic stays in the workshop. The cost per kilogram drops to roughly the energy it takes to run the machine. For a classroom with one printer, that changes the economics of trial and error.

What Is Next

Davis is already planning a commercial version. He wants to bring the component cost below $1,000 and push the machine toward high-temperature composite filaments. He has also been mentoring other students and presenting at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference. The $75,000 award gives him a runway to turn a science fair project into an actual product.