주택 건축의 미래, 재활용 플라스틱 3D 프린팅

Single-use plastics are a persistent source of environmental pollution, and the need to house a growing global population puts increasing pressure on resources such as timber. MIT engineers have an idea that could make a dent in both problems at once. In a recent study, a team led by mechanical engineering professor David Hardt, SM ’74, PhD ’79, and lecturer and research scientist AJ Perez ’13, MEng ’14, PhD ’23, laid out a plan for using recycled plastic to 3D-print construction-grade beams, trusses, and other structures that could one day offer lighter, more sustainable alternatives to traditional wood-based framing. Although some companies are working on using large-scale additive manufacturing to create walls, they’re mainly using concrete or clay, whose production typically has a large negative environmental impact. These engineers are among the first to explore printing structural framing elements—and to do so using recycled plastic. The design they came up with is similar in shape to the traditional wooden trusses that support flooring, with beams that connect in a pattern resembling a ladder with diagonal rungs. To test it, they obtained pellets made of recycled PET polymers and glass fibers from an aerospace materials company and fed them into a room-size 3D printer as “ink.” When they printed four long trusses with this material and configured them into a conventional plywood-topped floor frame, the result had a load-bearing capacity of over 4,000 pounds, far exceeding key building standards set by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The plastic-printed trusses weigh about 13 pounds each, light enough to transport without a flatbed truck. An industrial printer can crank one out in under 13 minutes. Crucially, the researchers are developing the process to work with “dirty” plastic that hasn’t been cleaned or preprocessed. In addition to floor trusses, they are working on printing other elements and combining them into a full frame for a modest-size house. “We’ve estimated that the world needs about 1 billion new homes by 2050. If we try to make that many homes using wood, we would need to clear-cut the equivalent of the Amazon rainforest three times over,” says Perez. “The key here is: We recycle dirty plastic into building products for homes that are lighter, more durable, and sustainable.” The researchers envision that one day, trash like used bottles and food containers could be sent directly into a shredder, turned into pellets, and fed into a large-scale additive manufacturing machine to become structural composite construction components. At the construction site, the elements could be quickly fitted into a lightweight yet sturdy home frame. “The idea is to bring shipping containers close to where you know you’ll have a lot of plastic, like next to a football stadium,” Perez says. “Then you could use off-the-shelf shredding technology and feed that dirty shredded plastic into a large-scale additive manufacturing system, which could exist in micro-factories, just like bottling centers, around the world. You could print the parts for entire buildings that would be light enough to transport on a moped or pickup truck to where homes are most needed.” Keep Reading Most Popular OpenAI is throwing everything into building a fully automated researcher An exclusive conversation with OpenAI’s chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, about his firm's new grand challenge and the future of AI. By Will Douglas Heaven archive page How Pokémon Go is giving delivery robots an inch-perfect view of the world Exclusive: Niantic's AI spinout is training a new world model using 30 billion images of urban landmarks crowdsourced from players. By Will Douglas Heaven archive page Inside the stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones The ultimate plan to live forever is a brand new body. By Antonio Regalado archive page Want to understand the current state of AI? Check out these charts. According to Stanford’s 2026 AI Index, AI is sprinting, and we’re struggling to keep up. By Michelle Kim archive page Stay connected Illustration by Rose Wong Get the latest updates from MIT Technology Review Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more. Enter your email Privacy Policy Thank you for submitting your email! Explore more newsletters It looks like something went wrong. We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.