CUTTING PAPER - IDEAS - What might the future hold?

What might the future hold?

The Rise of Printing

In recent years, more and more imaging has shifting from copying to printing. Fax machines are a good example of this, in that when an image might previously have been copied and mailed, now it is scanned, transmitted, and printed by a fax machine. More and more of what we "copy" will be documents that are stored on-line and so printed instead. Some new copiers are digital, further blurring the distinction between printing and copying. "Multifunction" devices can fax (in and out), scan, print, and copy. Today, these are most common among low-speed devices, but more and more of the higher speed machines people use will have several functions.

A problem for paper efficiency is that as imaging devices become cheaper and more widely spread, more images may be made on devices that can't reasonably duplex automatically (though manual duplexing may remain an option, though a poor one). On the other hand, people may be less likely to take or make a printed copy if they know it is easy to get one later on.

Improvements in electronic data management will likely mean eventual reductions in the amount of copy paper we use, but how much and when is unclear.

Future Paper - lighter or heavier?

In the coming years, more of what we put on paper will have color in it, which may require paper that is brighter (so colors look better), more opaque (so you don’t see the other side), and thicker (to help the opacity). InkJet printers, because of the way they work, work best on thicker paper than is needed for laser printers. All of these pose challenges for paper use in our ability to reduce or maintain our current standard paper weight (20 lb. in the U.S.), and for the use of recycled content in office paper. These challenges can be overcome, but only with deliberate attention.

On the other hand, it may be possible to reduce the weight of typical copy paper. The 20 lb. standard was arrived at some time ago, and both paper production technology and imaging equipment have improved since then. If 75% of the 4 million tons of copy paper used in the U.S. per year were changed to 18 lb. (67 g/m²) paper, we would reduce paper use by about 300,000 tons per year, saving the economy many millions of dollars per year.

Erasing Paper

Many people have noticed that most of the copy paper in recycling bins is in good condition apart from the print or copy on it. If one could only 'erase' the toner of the page, it could be reused as (nearly) new. At least two companies have seriously explored this option.

In 1993, the Ricoh company issued a press release announcing the "Paper Recycling System", a technology for removing toner from copy paper. However, within a few years they decided not to turn the technology into a product.

In 1997, Decopier Technologies, Inc. announced that they had developed a technology called "decopying"which removes the toner from laser printers and copiers.

There are significant challenges to the use of such products. Marks from pens and pencils may remain on the paper. Staples and tears may make the paper more likely to jam. Perhaps the biggest problem is the cost of collecting the paper in good form, then feeding it through the 'erasing' machine, and possibly inspecting it for damage or marks. While the Decopier makers claim that the cost of the machine can be recovered after processing slightly less than 2 tons of paper (750 reams), it isn't clear how labor costs are accounted for. There is also the issue of buying the removal chemicals and disposing of the waste toner.

Perhaps the best use is to remove the information from sensitive documents. The decopier makers note this. Shredding, the usual option, can be expensive and requires its own machines or an outside contractor. Another possible use is for expensive paper, such as paper used for high quality color rendition with inkjet printers. The savings would be much higher, but it would probably require a different technology than has been developed to date.

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