Cubify reported by  TreeHugger which  brought it to the web's notice, says the printer costs $1,299.Each cartridge of plastic is $50 can print between 8 and 11  items<  depending on what the design is. The current size scale is anything under a 5.5" cube.

"How is this green again?" asks TreeHugger, suggesting if you're buying it for a kid just to make their own plastic toys, it may be cool, but not green. But if you buy it to teach children about design and crafting prototypes to test and improve design -- raising the next generation of minimal-waste-minded designers and engineers -- then it has a strong green edge.

And as a designer, if this helps you build the best products using minimal materials for new prototypes, then its green. And when new materials other than ABS plastic come out, such as compostable plastics or even food, (maybe glass and ceramic) it should have a smaller impact on the environment.

Big 3D printing is already offered by US sites such as Ponoko. In the UK Exeter's 3D chocolate printing pilot  expanded into  its Centre for Additive Layer Manufacture CALM  (above right) whose title certainly takes some of the thrill out of the 3D printing idea by loosing it to the shade of layers and more layers.

But it's big on equipment and already established an impressive array of leading-edge machinery including 3D printing, Laser Sintering, Laser Melting,  deposition/extrusion processes, of particular interest the acquisition of a high temperature additive manufacturing system from EOS (EOSINT P800) – the only system in the UK capable of additive manufacturing with high performance plastics and offering 12 hours free help for Scottish SMEs.

Because of how  CALM is funded, it can offer small and medium enterprises an amount of free impartial advice and information, and/or subsidised part manufacture using ALM technologies, depending what is best for your business.

If your business 

• is less than 25% externally owned 
• does not own 25% or more of another business 
• has is less than €50m OR 
• balance sheet totals less than €43 million
• has less than 250 employees

and has not received more than €200,000 in support from any government agency within the last 3 years,  you could get 12 hours free help to get your business into the exciting 3D printing area, or more pragmatically move into Additive Layer Manufacture.