Institute For The Future

Reusable printer paper

"Xerox is developing a new printing technology that enables copier paper to be reused. Thanks to some innovative chemistry, the paper self-erases in about 16 to 24 hours or when heated. The effort is driven by some interesting research on how paper is used in today's mostly-digital office. Xerox "garbologist" Brinda Dalal went through office workers' trash to see what documents they were tossing into the circular file every day. From the New York Times:

Of the 1,200 pages the average office worker prints per month, 44.5 percent are for daily use — assignments, drafts or e-mail. In her research, scouring the waste produced by office workers, she found that 21 percent of black-and-white copier documents were returned to the recycling bin on the same day they were produced...