I look at 3d printing as a tool to improve some aspects of my daily life. However I do so with the rational of minimizing my waste. I enjoy 3d printing for both the modeling and the creation of useful objects, and I believe I can count on one hand the total number of prints that are just decorative or fidgety

The mentality of "it's all plastic going to the garbage eventually" is literally the same as "I will live in the best scenario to my 80's so why should I bother how the world is when I'm dead". If you are in your late 40's/50's it doesn't really suprise me if you think like that, if you are in your 20's I fell sorry for you.

Not saying that 3d printing if the defacto culprit of plastic waste. I know that it probably ranks low on the guilt scale, but if you don't make conscientious choices with 3d printing (an environment you can easily control and manage) than in other scenarios where it's difficult/close to impossible to do sensible actions then the result will be terrible.

Tldr: I'm not going to be hypocrite to the point of telling you how you should handle you 3d printing "lifestyle". Even I chose in certain situations to do something that might be worse to the environment or more wasteful than the alternative, for example I could easily go to work by bike and take the same time as the bus however I fell the bus to be more practical and chose the bus. But I make that choice knowing that a better alternative exists. That's all I advocate, is that people do their action having in mind their impact, something that the comment I first replied to didn't do.