Self-Erasing Paper

By Evan Ackerman

You know what the biggest waste of paper is? That’s right: paper. Xerox knows a thing or to about paper, and they’ve come up with self-erasing paper that can be used over and over again. Not erasable, but self-erasing, leaving you with an entirely blank sheet of paper after 24 hours that you can reuse up to 100 times. Here’s how it works:

“The paper contains specially coded molecules that create a print after being exposed to ultraviolet light emitted from a thin bar in a printer. The molecule readjusts itself within 24 hours to its original form to delete the print, or heat can readjust the molecule instantly.”

Obviously, one of the nice things about paper is that in general when you write something down it means you have a permanent, physical copy of something. But for memos about TPS report formatting and such, it’s better for everyone when they just disappear.

[ Computerworld ] VIA [ Gearfuse ]

2 COMMENTS

  1. This is a great idea. Most of the time, when I’m printing something out on my home computer, it’s Google directions, or a Fandango confirmation number or something like that. Since those are things I don’t need to keep permanently, it would be awesome to be able to reuse that paper.

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