Green printer from Toshiba

Talk about a truly paperless environment has remained just that – talk. Apparently, the time is not right and neither is the technology groundwork there for us to live in a truly paperless society, but that doesn’t mean initiatives cannot be made to move toward that goal. In view of this, Toshiba has developed a special rewritable stock that would go a long way in reducing paper consumption in huge companies. The paper is made from a form of plastic-like material with thermal printing properties, where exposure to temperatures higher than 180 degrees will turn it black while a temperature range between 130 and 160 degrees will turn the pigments white, essentially giving you a brand new page.

The Toshiba B-SX8R printer is not cheap though, as it retails for approximately $10,000 in Japan, with the paper stock running at $10 per page. The unique paper also cannot be used indefinitely as it is good for around 500 impressions, where the cost of normal paper is still cheaper. Hopefully a higher adoption rate globally will reduce manufacturing costs and help save the environment in the process. The Toshiba B-SX8R will make its way to North America and Europe sometime in 2008.