Additive Manufacturing and Sustainability

Sustainability has surpassed being an abstract concept into being a necessary pillar of any value-adding process. Classical manufacturing processes and equipment, especially newly designed ones have had sustainability retrofitted in one form or another. With additive manufacturing, there is ample chance to incorporate sustainability into the core of the processes from the design phase, to materials selection and eventually during execution. This chapter highlights the opportunities that exist at the core of additive manufacturing to achieve unprecedented levels of sustainability. From recycling to repurposing and ending with a clear implementation of circular economy concepts, additive manufacturing ushers a new age of augmenting modern sustainability paradigms into what will become mainstream manufacturing technologies.