Xerox Corporation has come up with a winner for those who are into recycling i.e. the Erasable Paper, a paper where prints last about a day before being automatically erased.

The experimental printing technology, a collaboration between the Xerox Research Centre of Canada and PARC (Palo Alto Research Center Inc.), could someday replace printed pages that are used for just a brief time before being discarded. Xerox estimates that as many as two out of every five pages printed in the office are for what it calls “daily” use, like e-mails, Web pages and reference materials that have been printed for a single viewing.

So how does it work? The paper is used just like conventional paper for printing or writing text. When it is printed, the developed compounds of the paper change color when they absorb a certain wavelength of light and it gradually erases the ink until the page is completely blank. The process takes around 16-24 hours from when the original piece of paper is printed on.

The technology is still in the early stages of development, so it will be some time before we’ll see this product in the shops.

This is a smart idea but the rate at which it automatically erases the text on the paper could prove worrying to some and issues may occur with people using it in negative ways and to their advantage e.g. deliberately asking clients or businesses to sign legal contracts (on this erasable paper) but having no trace of it 24 hours later.

Product Page [Xerox]