<story><title>Office Papermaking System That Turns Waste Paper into New Paper</title><url>http://global.epson.com/newsroom/2015/news_20151201.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>sandworm101</author><text>&amp;quot;...this essential tool is also produced from a limited resource.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Noop.  Paper comes from trees.  Trees are not a limited resource.  They grow again.  A well-managed forest will provide forever.  Looking at the complexity of this machine, the plastics and metal used, and its probable energy consumption, I doubt it is any more environmentally friendly than new or traditional recycled paper.&lt;p&gt;I also cannot see this thing recycling forever.  It adds chemicals, binders, to the new paper.  Subsequent generations will be more and more binder and less and less paper.  So the process will need an intake of new paper at one end, and a disposal of used paper waste at the other.  And now instead of relatively harmless paper ready for recycling, that waste is toxic sludge of binders and fragrances.</text></comment>
<story><title>Office Papermaking System That Turns Waste Paper into New Paper</title><url>http://global.epson.com/newsroom/2015/news_20151201.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Animats</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s an impressive achievement.  But how many offices use substantial amounts of paper entirely internally any more?&lt;p&gt;The big problem with paper recycling is that the fibers get shorter on each pass, resulting in weaker paper.  Going closed-cycle on paper is going to make that problem worse.  It&amp;#x27;s not like aluminum, where you can go round and round forever without deterioration.  Now if the system can take junk mail as a feedstock, it will be more useful.</text></comment>