Xerox develops reusable paper

Posted January 11, 2007 at 11:50 PM by PJ Hruschak

Section: Gadgets / Other, Household, Miscellaneous

We’re not talkin’ origami, creative wrapping ideas or scrapbooking. This is honest-to-goodness paper that wipes clean after a day and can be reused. It’s paper recycling at its finest.

The experimental self-erasing paper was developed by Research Centre of Canada and PARC (Palo Alto Research Center Inc.) and still in the experimental phase. PARC developed a special printer that uses a light bar to provide a specific wavelength of light as a writing source. The paper contains a compound that changes color when it absorbs certain wavelengths of light, which also allows the writing to gradually disappear in 16-24 hours or immediately erase with exposure to heat. No word yet on exactly how many re-uses you can get out of a single sheet.

According to Xerox’s site, they estimate two out of five pages printed in the office are for single-view use including e-mails, Web pages and reference materials. This would certainly help to cut down on the amount of paper ending up in landfills. Xerox has filed a patent and only refer to it as “erasable paper,“ though I’m sure they’ll come up with a few more creative names for it.

Just think of the possible uses: Secure documents with a guaranteed expiration date, a substitute for all those tiny sticky notes you pile on top of each other, secret notes, a temporary recipe card, a place you can doodle all day, every day and not waste a single sheet of paper. It’s very Mission Impossible without all the smoke (unless, of course, you overheat the paper when erasing it).

Read [Xerox]