The science of paper recycling turns over a whole new leaf

As the piles of paper rise in workplaces, most businesses have given up on the promise of the "paperless office", to the extent that it is routinely referred to as a myth. But as organisations wake up to their impact on the environment, paper management is back in focus.

Strategies include using less paper, selecting devices that use less energy to produce documents, and making a stronger commitment to recycling.

Last week, however, document management specialist Seiko Epson unveiled a new device - and a new approach - to recycling. At the CeBIT technology fair in Hannover, Germany, it lifted the lid on the PaperLab, a recycling machine designed to fit in an office.

The operator feeds used printer paper into the PaperLab, which shreds it, turns it into paper pulp, and transforms it back into paper, ready for the printer again.

It is about the size of a minibus, and although the cost hasn't been revealed, it will probably run to several hundred thousand dollars.

The size and cost may well be a deterrent, but this device is a signpost - not to a new technology but to a new mindset.

"We are creating a new office printing and recycling ecosystem," Seiko Epson CEO and president Minoru Usui told Business Times last week. "We are offering the benefits of paper without the burden it places on the environment."

The PaperLab goes beyond the obvious benefit of recycling for its own sake, by addressing concerns about the water burden of producing paper. An A4 sheet of paper demands, on average, one cup of water to produce. This machine uses a waterless process.

It even reduces the carbon footprint of recycling, which typically has large trucks transporting used paper to recycling plants, and the new paper being taken to sales and distribution points by more fume-belching vehicles. If it's all done in-house, this great irony of the recycling process disappears.

Finally, it is more secure: because the paper is reduced to fibre, it carries no discernible information - unlike shredders, which can be a security nightmare. That makes it ideal for government offices and the like, which handle a lot of confidential printed data.

The PaperLab produces its first sheet about three minutes after being loaded with waste paper, and then churns out 720 sheets an hour. That might not be enough to keep pace with the demands of a large organisation, but it is a start.

"This is the first model, so it still comes at a relatively high cost," Usui said.

"But what we envisage for the future is a situation where large companies can bring in a PaperLab at the equivalent cost of all the paper they would have bought in that period. Even if you look only at depreciation, in Japan it will cut out a third of the price."

While not guaranteeing timing or pricing, Usui believes the purchase price will go down by two-thirds in the next three years, and the size of the device will drop to a third of the first model. That means it will occupy similar office and budget space as the high-end, high-capacity printers used in the corporate world.

"It's not difficult," he said. "I'm pretty certain we can do that."

Goldstuck is the founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter @art2gee