The Paper Shredder that Makes Paper…
Recycling on your own is pretty limited. You can reuse plastic containers and glass bottles, compost newspaper and bundle other recyclables, but barring the impractical, that’s about it, until now!
A Japanese company has invented an in-office paper shredder and recycler that actually makes usable sheets of paper.
The Meiko SEED paper recycling system can transform used business paper into 1,500 sheets of new paper.
It takes 10 hours to produce 1,500 sheets and requires 200 liters of tap water and 38 kWh of electricity. The environmental footprint looks like this:
- Virgin paper: 390.7 liters of water and 80.3 kWh of energy consumption;
- Recycled paper: 153.4 liters of water and 31.4 kWh of energy consumed.
Paper can be recycled up to 10 times. The Meiko system uses 30% less water than similar systems and costs a mere $86,000. Apparently that’s a competitive price because the company expects to sell 100 units in the first year.
Although cynics wonder what happens to the wastewater. A lot of paper is made with chemical coatings.
Via TreeHugger.
