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Dec 8, 2006

"Things don't change. You change your way of looking, that's all." --Carlos Castaneda

Inventing Auto-Erasing Paper

Recycling is a necessary initiative, but Anthropologist Brinda Dalal at Xerox’s Research center looked one step further in considering the monthly average of 1,200 pages printed by an average office worker. Dalal investigated usage patterns of photocopying and found that 44.5 percent are for daily use -- assignments, drafts or e-mail, and that 21 percent of black-and-white copier documents were returned to the recycling bin on the same day they were produced! So, Xerox technologists innovated office copiers that generate "transient documents" produced on a specially coated paper with a light yellow tint, with the print appearing in purple ink. Information on the document "disappears" within 16 hours, and individual pieces of paper are used up to 50 times.