These things are both 'natural' resources for a while now. We have landfills and dumpsters that are full of computers and plastics, all over the globe. People are paying money to get rid of them, in my country.
the landfills are filled with broken computers and the plastics need reprocessing. Sure you may be able to get a microcontroller, motors, drivers for the motors etc from a 'landfill', but it's not too practical.
Really there are people all over the world who are excited about making that easy. I used to be one of them. All you need is to use the stuff, to build tools that makes it easier to use it.
(yes, I do get components for my electronics projects from the landfill)
I used to desolder boards, and I've visited electronics recycling places. I haven't gone into a literal landfill myself ;p Once I found a dumpster full of desktop computers.
except, recycled materials have to be manufactured before they can be recycled.
To push back more, now that we are covered in piles of manufactured materials, we have responsibility with regard to figuring out what to do with them.
it's mostly garbage because that's how it was designed in the first place. The stuff that jim bell's industrial 'civilization' produces is meant to be used 6 months and thrown away.
It's usually designed to break in some stupid way where most of the components still last for years and years. I never figured out how to glitch microcontrollers to reprogram them with the fuses blown, but I understand that there is much better material available on how, nowadays 7 years later.
My point stands I think. 3D printing is a specialized process and it fully relies on supplies that come either directly or indirectly from govcorp.
Say it enough and it can get more true, I suppose. That's sure what the corps are doing. With me believing I was brainwashed to be a coerced corporate slave, it's hard for me to get back into this stuff out of fear, but it used to be everywhere. You could make a puppet to continue my side of the argument, saying something like 'home 3d printing is way better than industrial factories' over and over again.
Last but not least you don't need a 3d printer to build weapons.
You had a good point there. Eventually 3d printers will make intelligent things that think on their own, and if we still have weapons at that point they would be a lot more powerful than the alternative.