Design / Green

Erasable Paper

Xerox

Wouldn’t no recycling bins be better than blue recycling bins? More than 40 percent of all office printouts are discarded the day they are printed. That’s a lot of paper that could be reused, rather than recycled, if it were printed on erasable paper. By coating the paper with photosensitive chemicals, a light bar is used to provide a specific wavelength of light that creates visible text on the page. This printing then self-erases over a 24-hour period, so the now-blank paper can be repeatedly reused — not only reducing waste, but also reducing printing and paper costs dramatically. This early-stage technology shows great promise and is not likely to disappear on its way to commercialization.

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