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Laser Unprinting Coming Soon

By on March 19, 2013 in Inventions

Drowing in Paper

Are you drowning in waste paper from everything you print out only to read once before tossing in the recycle bin (or to the worms)? Scientists in the UK may have a solution that will allow you to reuse those sheets of paper. An experimental laser printer built at Cambridge University is capable of reversing the laser printing process and removing toner from previously printed pages:

The primary goal of unprinting is to cut down on the carbon footprint of the paper and printing industries. Manufacturing paper is incredibly messy business that produces millions of tons of CO2 every year. Recycling paper is definitely a step in the right direction, but it’s still a very resource-intensive process. If we could simply delete sheets of paper, rather than re-pulping them, we could cut down on electricity usage, CO2 output, and most importantly fresh water, which is growing more scarce by the year. It would also be rather handy if you never had to buy another ream of paper, too.

In a worst-case scenario, The University of Cambridge unprinting method has half the carbon emissions of recycling; best-case, unprinting is almost 20 times as efficient. It’s now a matter of building the technology into a commercial device, which the team admits is probably a long way off. High-powered picosecond lasers are the reserve of labs… for now!

Photo by Nomad_Soul/ShutterStock.

laser printing recycle

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

Another Idea: How to Start a Paper Recycling Business

  • andres ochoa

    i want one

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