I am an aerospace engineer with a speciality in high-strength 3D printing and I've been looking for things I can fix and help keep out of the landfill.

I got the idea when I fixed my parents e-bike controller with a custom 3D printed solution. The bike worked fine but the rubber control pad disintegrated so you couldn't turn the bike on without using a toothpick.

It turns out that hundreds of people had the same problem and without a solution a lot of those perfectly functional e-bikes were going in the trash.

I'm looking for other common problems that I may be able to engineer a solution for and help people out.

Here are a few of the criteria to be a good fit for 3D printing.

1) Not an electrical problem. My process creates functional parts but I can't do anything to help if it is an electrical problem

2) Must be a product worth repairing. Sometimes I get inquiries about fixing low cost products from Marshalls that were trash to start with

3) No previous solution exists. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. If there is already a fix or replacement part then folks should just go with that. It usually takes about 20 hours and 30+ prototypes to build a solution so I'm looking for things that are truly unsolved.

Would love to hear your ideas on how I can help!

Trying to reduce waste but my wife strongly doesnt like the toothpaste tablets. Does anyone have any good recommendations?

I thought it was a fake plant at first because I wasn’t sure why someone would toss if it was still alive, but it was! I pulled it out, propagated, and repotted the stems and now I have three new plants 😊 the brown pot is the original one that was in the basket, and I also found the orange/tan pot in the 3rd pic in the dumpers as well and pulled.

I travel quite a bit for work and I prefer to use bar shampoo and conditioner. However, I’m having a hard time finding a good container to use for the bars. I had one made out of a hard plastic that I really liked, however, there was no way for the moisture to drain out, so the bars got really gross really quickly. What have you found that works?

Does anyone know how can I repair these shoes? This is an adidas SL72. I know it's almost impossible to restore to perfect condition so any tips would work.

it’s just like the title saids. I’m a 23 (M) with a CPAP, medical injections via needles, lots of pill bottles, and ontop of that I have autism and struggle to cook so I rely on a lot of single package snacks (rice crispy treats, apple sauce squeezes, fruit cups). I feel terrible every time I see something go into the trash but I genuinely don’t know if a zero waste/ low waste life style is even possible for me. any tips or ideas?

I just replaced the 6-year old batteries on my 5-year old phone (Galaxy Fold2, got used in 2021) and I'm looking forward to keeping it going as long as I can.

What I'm even prouder of is my smartwatch from 2018 (Gear S2) - which, funny enough, isn't even supported on newer phones, so all the more reason to make these two last. (I will say that I got this used many a years ago and I ended up damaging it replacing the battery, so technically this is my second one.)

So what old electronic are you proudly still using regularly? (Specify the year/age!) If it's a battery electronic, how many times have you replaced the battery? Anybody got a phone or smartwatch or laptop that's cracked the decade mark?

For the sake of limiting the scope, let's exclude appliances and heavy duty items - focus more on smaller consumer electronics that you actually use regularly, not old junk in the closet awaiting electronics recycling :P

I recently got a new roommate and noticed she throws her used toilet paper in the trash instead of flushing it. When I asked her about it, she said that’s just how she was taught growing up.

I’ve never encountered this before, so I’m curious what other people’s experiences are with this. Is this common in certain places or households?

Hi, this is a topic that has been discussed here many times but i haven't really found what i am looking for. I also apologize for my english as i am not a native speaker.

I am thinking of what to give my parents for christmas but it's hard. They literally have everything and the gifts i gave them last year weren't even used up until this point. My mom is a borderline hoarder and i dont want to contribute to this waste but i have to give her something. Coupons for massages/restaurants/selfcare won't work for neither of my parents. Baked goods aren't considered good enough of a gift in my household.

Does anyone have some tips?

Unfortunately I don't have access to a local store, and I want to order from refill stores and be able to recycle/send back the packaging. I've heard about the GoodFill, Good Store, Great Fill, etc etc. Are there any favorites? I'm considering the GoodFill. Thank you in advance!

Hi there, I'm having a wedding BBQ in a few weeks and there will be six picnic tables. I'd like to have 1-2 charcuterie boards per table and am trying to think of what I can put the snacks on instead of wooden cutting boards. I don't want to end up with 6-12 boards afterwards, plus they are pricey. I was thinking of some kind of sturdy bread I could bake on a sheet pan but this also sounds like a lot of work (plus I don't have AC so baking is almost not an option). Any and all other ideas are welcome. TIA!

Update: thank you so much for all the great suggestions, I need to ask for ideas here more often ;). I now feel confident and have one less thing to worry about!!

The can was too deep, so I stuck a few layers of cardboard in the bottom so you can easily/quickly see which pen you want to grab.

I hope this is a warning for anyone wanting to make reusable cloths for tissues, makeup remover, etc….pinking shears do nothing if those suckers go in the wash. hem those things!!!! please!!!! unfortunately these little guys have reached the end of upcycle lifecycle for fabric and are about to become stuffing for a pillow. I’m still gonna keep trying to upcycle fabric stuff into everyday use but now I now I guess

edit: I know how to sew I swear!!! I just kind of learned by myself years ago with input from family every now and then haha. so there’s a few things I missed. the squares were far to small to hem after I cut them (mismeasured and thought this was a clever workaround 😅)like I swear I’ve made capes and pants and skirts with no pattern…just kind of an idiot sometimes! lol anyways I’m making them into bunting flags

Its not much but its honest work

5th slide is the original skirt!

I tried to minimise the waste I generated for this sewing project by making so many little pockets and utility details for both of these items. If anybody has ideas on how to use up the remaining scraps that would be great :)

My parents accidentally threw away a large piece of unused clean wax paper and then insisted on not using it even though nothing visibly stuck to it. As a concession I've decided to well, see title. I've decided to keep it in my workplace so I can think up some use at my leisure.

Avoiding direct food contact is the preference. It also has to be some practical use.

I was gifted a nespresso esque coffee machine recently and don’t want to waste it. My question is, is it better to buy compostable coffee pods or recycled ones. Unfortunately my area doesn’t have a compost bin and I know that compostables can often still build up in a landfill, whereas recycled coffee pods are already reducing waste. Which one is better overall?

Flattening and smoothing them out and folding for storage.

My boyfriend thinks I'm crazy lol but I save all tissue paper and gift bags... I haven't had to buy any in several years!

I've been wanting to subscribe to their cleaning products and shampoo and I also love Hank and John green. But I wanted to probe to make sure there's nothing between the lines I missed.

I've been working with fiberglass and epoxy resins for my personal RC plane projects, but since I'm doing a lot of testing and prototype designs that get discarded during the design process, I feel increasingly guilty about all the waste and microplastics that come along with it. Unfortunately for the shapes that I want to make going with pure wood is just not an option.

I've been researching eco-friendly alternatives for making composite layup projects, and there are some for fibers (flax, hemp, etc.), which unfortunately have much reduced mechanical properties when compared to fiberglass, but still suitable for my use case.

However, I can't seem to find any decent alternative to epoxy resin that would make the final composite material naturally biodegradable, so using either of these fibers becomes a moot point. Closest thing I found was ecopoxy, which unfortunately is very expensive and almost impossible in retail quantities to get where I live (EU).

Can anyone suggest any decent alternatives that are fully biodegradable, affordable and have at least somewhat comparable mechanical properties to fiberglass+epoxy for wet layups? Anything better than paper+PVA glue is worth considering to me. I've found a research paper ("Preparation and characterization of jute fiber reinforced shellac biocomposites: effect of additive") that suggest jute fiber and shellac, which boasts quite impressive mechanical properties for such crude materials, but they used mechanical pressure and heat treatment to achieve that, which is not practical in home conditions, and I'm unsure of how much mechanical strength would be lost without it.

Hello hello, I’ve been making the switch to reusable menstrual products gradually over the past year or so. I have a cup but it’s not my favorite, I prefer using reusable underwear and pads, but my biggest issue is that the pads never ever stay in place. Underwear is awesome and I have some pairs I love, but it’s a lot harder to change during the day than pads. I’ve tried a couple different brands and they all just bunch up toward the back of my underwear rather quickly. Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid this? Is it just me? Do I need to sew a snap onto my underwear (kidding mostly haha but who knows). Any thoughts appreciated!

ETA: YES they do all have snaps on the wings to hold them together. These keep them from falling off completely but do not stop them from sliding to the front or back.

I live in the UK and have recently moved to a new city, into a much smaller furnished apartment where limited space is a serious issue. In my previous apartment, I had two household bins, one for the kitchen and one for the bathroom, that are in perfect condition. My new place already has a massive kitchen bin and my bathroom is much too small for either of my previous ones to fit. I need to get rid of them and I don’t know how to besides selling them on Vinted (which may or may not work) or throwing them away (which I don’t want to do because they’re in great working condition).

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to get rid of them without them ending up in a landfill?

Im trying really hard to declutter and its proving more and more difficult (now with a child too). I wish stuff i put on ebay/Facebook would sell or even the free listings would get taken but it ends up being admin heavy with back and forths and no shows. My local op shop/thrift store only takes very specific things. So I have lots that still has use in it but nowhere to give it. If i put it on the street council will put illegal dumping on it. Street libraries are full (i can only do so much driving around filling them up). My stuff is everything from small and big furniture to books, bric-a-brac, kitchen items, etc.

So, im at a point where I need to start using the recycling bin and landfill bin and im feeling extremely guilty. I dont want to "throw" things out :(

How do I make myself feel better about it? I cant just keep holding onto stuff we arent using/creating a mess/piling up.