I hope you won’t be allergic to your 3D print!  Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have developed a way to make a bioplastic from shrimp shells.  The shells contain chitin, which is the 2nd most abundant organic material on earth, that often is viewed as just a waste material.  Chitin is a long-chain polysaccharide composing the shell of shrimp and other crustaceans as well as insects and many other “flexible armor” applications in nature.  Although it wouldn’t be a substitute for all materials, one could easily imagine many applications where this would work great.  If it were reduced to filament it could easily be printed.  I simply love technology that can take waste and turn it to something useful, a real trash to treasure story.

You can read the press release from Wyss to see some pictures, video and get more detailed information.