Advances in Paper Technology

Imagine being able to wipe print off the page and use the paper again. Visualize a piece of thin flexible plastic the size of this newsletter page that could be used over and over to display easily read text and graphics. These are possibilities that sound like science fiction but are, in fact, descriptions of technologies close to commercial release. These innovations, if they are realized and adopted, will take us well beyond the considerable reduction in paper use that can be achieved through habit changes and efficient use of current technology.

Tree-saving electronic paper comes a step closer

Electronic paper, which promises to change the face of publishing and save forests, has come closer to reality as scientists recently revealed a super-thin, flexible, electronic-ink display screen. Just 0.012-inch thick, the device, developed by researchers at E Ink Corporation in Cambridge, Mass., can be flexed without distorting the type and paves the way for electronic newspapers, wearable computer screens, and smart identity cards.

When it is fully developed, e-paper will be able to display black-and-white and colour text using wireless technology. Buying the daily newspaper will no longer be necessary because with e-paper, it will be updated wirelessly or through the Internet.

The display consists of two components. The front part switches according to electronic signals, and the back component is a circuit made of transistors that control each individual pixel that composes the display. Each pixel needs a circuit, made of transistors, behind it to switch it. In order to make electronic paper, the transistors have to be made on a very thin and flexible substrate, in this case a very thin stainless steel foil. The current device is too thick to be folded in half, but scientists are working on a thinner version.

(Source: Environmental Network News)

Advanced De-inking Technology

Toner-based ink, the type used in copiers and printers, is difficult to remove with current de-inking processes. Offices use these printing systems extensively, so much of the paper entering the recycling system comes bearing a problem ink.

Decopier Technologies, is developing a 'DeCopier' de-inking fluid that removes toner-based inks from complete sheets of paper, allowing the possibility that a piece of paper may be used several times. (Current prototypes see it being used to wipe paper clean before recycling.) It can also be used in more standard recycling processes to remove toner inks from pulp. Product developers state that the fluid is non-toxic and can be recovered for extensive reuse.

Electronic Paper

Electronic paper represents a much more radical technological change, comparable to the introduction of paper to Europe. Historians Febvre and Martin note that the technology needed to create a printing press was available in Europe for at least a century before Gutenburg's invention of moveable type in Germany in the 1440's. Printing presses were made possible by the introduction of paper—a Chinese invention brought to Europe by Arabs. Until that point Europeans had written on animal skins, which were available in limited supply. Electronic paper, if realized, will give the same flexibility of use as paper but be almost infinitely reuseble.

The concept of electronic paper is credited to physicist Nick Sheridon. In 1975, shortly after he joined the staff of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Centre, Sheridon was inspired by the thought of electronic books and magazines but noted that monitors were bulky and difficult to read. Sheridon says he thought "that instead of replacing paper with the monitor, it might be smarter to replace the monitor with a new type of paper". He developed a prototype electronic ink which he called Gyricon, from the Greek word for rotating images. Gyricon used tiny charged spheres that were half black, half white.(1) An electronic 'message' oriented the balls so that letters were formed. The manufacture of the spheres, the rigidity required to transfer the electric message and the expense caused Xerox to shelve this project in 1977.

Joseph Jacobsen, a physicist at MIT, picked up Sheridon's ideas in the mid-nineties. After experiencing the same frustrations with manufacturing the bicoloured spheres, he and his students developed E-ink. They used the concept of sphere but this time in the form of small vessels filled with oil and tiny chips of charged titanium paint.(2) In 1997, Jacobsen and associates founded E-Ink, Inc. By 1999, they had developed in-store display signs that were in use by J.C.Penny stores. The late nineties saw Xerox, IBM and Philips all expressing interest in e-paper. Rigidity had remained a problem, but the advent of electrically conducting plastics brought new possibilities to the fore. E-Ink and Lucent Technologies did extensive prototype work in 1999 with the new plastics. Industry insiders estimate that three to five years of work is needed to get this technology ready for the market. Resolution, durability, reliability, cost and the issue of colour all remain challenges.

These are exciting possibilities, given the large part that paper plays in current waste streams. For further information, see:

1. Palo Alton Research Centre website - Gyricon
2. E-Ink Technology website

(Source: June 2001 WasteWatch)

Laptops in, textbooks and paper out for teens in Arizona

A high school in southeast Arizona will become the state's first all-laptop public school this fall (2005). Some 350 students at the school in Vail, about 35 kilometres southeast of Tucson, will not have traditional textbooks. Instead, they will use electronic and online articles as part of more traditional teacher lesson plans.

Vail Unified School District 's decision to back an all-electronic school is rare. Computer industry sources say cost, insecurity, ignorance and institutional constraints all can prevent schools from making the leap away from paper.

(Source: Recycling Council of Ontario in September 2005 WasteWatch)

Xerox Touts 'Erasable' Paper

Xerox researchers are working on an "erasable paper" system that would allow paper documents to be recycled — potentially an unlimited number of times. The joint effort is between the Xerox Research Center of Canada and the company's fabled Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Researchers said they have observed a notable change in the role of paper in modern offices, where it is increasingly used as a medium of display rather than storage. Documents are stored on central servers and personal computers and printed only as needed: for meetings, editing or reviewing information.

(Source: Recycling Council of Ontario in Dec. 2006 WasteWatch)

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