Toshiba creates re-useable paper

Save trees

Will it save money?

Printing boffins at Toshiba are close to a breakthrough that could save billions of trees from being turned into paper.
Last year researchers at Toshiba, in Japan, unveiled inventions that allow paper to be re-used.

Toshiba claims its re-writeable paper can be used 500 times. They claim the printer will save the planet and could even cut printing costs.

The paper is really an A4 sized white plastic sheet which contains special pigments, which can be turned on and off by varying temperatures. A special printer uses both a heating and cooling element, to control patterns of the pigment, creating text or pictures.

The TEC B-SX8R printer will cost around £5000 and each sheet of A4 costs £5. “Prices will go down when we go into mass production,” promised Mike Keane, Toshiba’s European product manager. “No-one will nick the paper from work, as it only works with a special printer.”

Over five years, a company that prints off 800 sheets of A4 a day could save $10,000, according to Toshiba’s estimates. It will also prevent the creation of an 83 metre high pile of scrap paper going into landfill. Toshiba claims the efficient technology will save 4 kilos of carbon dioxide emissions, by avoiding the manufacture of paper. “We’re keen to adhere to the Kyoto Treaty to reduce emissions any way we can,” said Keane.

Environmental pressure groups have proposed a ‘carbon credit’ scheme, where companies pay a tax on the amount of carbon emissions their activities create. If adopted by governments, this back door taxation could hit certain industries – legal, financial services and print/publishing particularly.

“This would be great for companies where loads of proof reading goes on, and the documents are then discarded,” said Rob Bamforth, senior analyst with Quocirca (an IT industry analyst) “but it could really catch on it they offer people a way to save money. With a mass market, the price of these machines could fall, making it economically viable too. Then it becomes a no-brainer.”

Technology like this could create a quiet revolution, Bamforth predicted, which has more impact than pressure groups and bans on cars. “The spin offs could be quite far reaching. People tend to over-estimate the impact of change in the short term, but under-estimate the effects in the long term. This could have much more long term benefits than banning cars, because it’ll change the way we consume resources.”

Meanwhile, printer maker Xerox has developed disappearing ink system. Its paper uses has a photochromic compound that changes from a clear state to a coloured state under ultra-violet light. This can create the print face, which can fade with time. When researchers at its Grenoble R&D centre have completed the project, Xerox hope to offer ordinary cheap paper that can be constantly re-used. “It’s still at the research stage,” admitted a Xerox spokesman.

 

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