Eco-interesting: Xerox claims there's more to making paper green than recycling it
From one of Xerox's PR folks Bill McKee came this note of interest regarding the something Xerox has done to help save the planet:
Xerox announced today that its researchers have developed the ultimate “green” paper – a high-yield paper that saves trees and cuts costs for the customer.
The first of its kind, the new paper optimized for digital printing is made by a mechanical process so it uses half as many trees as traditional paper, is manufactured with less water and chemicals, and is made in a mill using hydroelectricity, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent. Plus, because it’s lighter than paper made by the traditional chemical process, it costs less to ship and mail.
The innovative paper is the result of work by Xerox paper engineers and scientists to overcome traditional operating problems with this type of paper (curl and dust) that until now, prevented mechanical fiber papers from being used in digital devices.
This is not only good news for our environment - -but to the bottom line of our customers. The paper is not only lightweight, but also its opaqueness and whiteness make it a good solution for transactional and non archival applications. So this truly is a green innovation – both for the environment and our customers’ pocketbooks.
I normally don't reprint what's sent to me word for word (and there was more to McKee's note than just this. But I've been to that Lil' House O' Invention in Rochester, NY they call Xerox and they do invent some ridiculously cool stuff there. Since there's no way to test this invention against the claims Xerox is making for it (at least not yet), I figured I just pass it along as is as an item of interest. Especially with the "cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent" part. If that works out to be true, this is exactly the sort of invention we need a lot of more and fast. Also note, the "non-archival" bit. Clearly, this paper isn't for all uses. But it's still great progress.