New
unprinting method can help recycle paper and curb environmental costs
Rutgers University
Imagine if your printer had an
"unprint" button that used pulses of light to remove toner, curbing
environmental impacts compared with conventional paper recycling.
A Rutgers-led team has created a new
way to unprint paper that, unlike laser-based methods, can work with the
standard, coated paper used in home and office printers.
The new method uses pulses of light from a xenon lamp, and can erase black, blue, red and green toners without damaging the paper, according to a study in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
The new method uses pulses of light from a xenon lamp, and can erase black, blue, red and green toners without damaging the paper, according to a study in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
"Our method makes it possible to unprint and then reprint on the same paper at least five times, which is typically as many times paper can be reused with conventional recycling. By eliminating the steps involved in conventional recycling, our unprinting method could reduce energy costs, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions," said study coauthor Rajiv Malhotra, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the School of Engineering at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.
Conventional recycling of coated
paper is a major contributor to climate change emissions, chemical pollution
and energy use, according to the study. Extending the life of paper while
avoiding these recycling steps would yield significant environmental benefits.
The engineers' next steps are to
further refine the method by testing additional toner colors on a wider range
of paper types. Unprinting can be done with simple equipment and a wipe with a
very small amount of benign alcohol, and the engineers are working to integrate
unprinting with typical office and home printers.