Earth Day 2024 is on April 22nd. This year I’ve decided to work on a project where the 3D-printed object helps reduce landfill/recycling load.

This project costed us nothing other than the filament, which mostly went to the 3D-printed objects as we designed our models to require no support.

Neighborhood Finds

We’re reusing small glass containers we got on our walk around the block. We got 8 of them. Perhaps they were for yogurts in the past? Baby food? We might never really know. It’s endearing to see the best buy date on the side of the containers.

I put out an ISO (In Search Of) on my Buy Nothing group for small succulent cuttings, and the neighborhood responded! With their permission, I was welcomed to pretty much go to their front yards and take small cuttings, or ones they prepared for me.

Self-Watering Small Planters

If you know us, you can foretell what’s going to happen: self-watering small planters for the succulents. To be honest, the plants in those self-watering planters we made did better than the ones that aren’t, because we pretty much revisit them once every 3-4 weeks to refill the water. We live in a condo, so space is a valuable real-estate. I’m thinking about tiered arrangements.

Printed Parts

1.a and 1.b: Base / Stand

They were designed in 2 parts to require no support. Easy prints, less than 200 grams of filament. A whole assembly will house 4 planters.

2: Cuttings Container

This part was also designed to be printed lightly without any supports to reduce plastic waste. With 3 walls, it’s sturdy enough to hold the succulents. Each of these will be put inside each of the glass jars.

Full Assembly / Final Product

Tada! We have the planters and the succulents all arranged. Self-watering planters are gonna be great for succulents, reducing the need to check on them even more.