Between the Bytes

The Paperless Chase

Val Souza

Over a billion trees are felled yearly to produce the world’s annual paper supply, almost all of which comes from plant cellulose obtained from tree wood pulp. Are there no alternatives?

It’s so long ago, I just cannot remember the last time I wrote a personal letter on paper and posted it to a friend. For that matter, I haven’t received a personal letter by post for quite a while either. E-mail has kind of put paid to that mode of communication. Indeed, all our intra-office communication and most of our external dealings too are also effected via some mode of electronic communication these days. As a result, less paper is used, and surely, that’s great news for trees.

Or so you’d be tempted to think. But paradoxically, study after study has found that paper consumption has zoomed since the digital and Internet revolutions. True, interpersonal communication is rarely on paper these days, but in every other way the information explosion, coupled with easy and inexpensive access to PCs and printers, has meant that more and more people are printing out an increasing number of documents for reference, research and permanent filing.

Well over a couple of thousand billion pages are churned out of printers, copiers and fax machines every year, and that number is growing. Websites provide a “printer-friendly” version of their pages for good reason—a lot of people still prefer to print out information and read it on paper rather than on screen. A UC Berkeley study estimated that the amount of new original information stored on paper increased 36 percent between 1999 and 2002, a large proportion of which came from the increased creation of office documents via ubiquitous computer printers. A single tree can be converted into 80,500 sheets of paper on average, and despite recycling of paper, various estimates point to over a billion trees being felled yearly to produce the world’s annual paper supply, almost all of which comes from plant cellulose obtained from tree wood pulp.

Are there no alternatives? There have been successful attempts to use raw materials other than wood pulp to make paper (such as Melcher Media’s DuraBook technology which uses polypropylene film instead of cellulose-based paper, or Navneet’s ecobuddy notebooks made from bagasse). But by and large, initiatives like DuraBook have proved to be too expensive or too inconvenient to cater to the mainstream.

Then there are electronic alternatives. When I last wrote on this topic in August 1999, the first e-books were just being released in US markets. These devices, with names like Rocket, Softbook and Everybook, offered display screens with clarity approaching the high-resolution levels of traditional printed books, as well a tactile experience that mimicked the handling and reading experience expected from a typical paperback. Popular novels and non-fiction books were being made available for download onto the

e-books from sites such as Peanutpress.com (later acquired by Palm, and now renamed eReader). But, exorbitant pricing and non-compelling features kept e-books away from all but the most excusive niches, these last five years. In fact, the action shifted to handheld computers like the Palm Organiser, Pocket PC, etc, which were more than just electronic readers and offered other powerful computing capabilities, thus justifying the price.

Meanwhile, in the labs, researchers have been working furiously on developing electronic paper and digital ink—technologies that would circumvent the problems of conventional displays and eventually make e-reading a commonplace reality. Since 1999, the two most talked-about initiatives have been Gyricon (from Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre) and E Ink (an MIT Media Lab spin-off). The fabric-like electronic paper is essentially made up of millions of charged microcapsules that can be repeatedly rearranged into different patterns to produce pages of text or images. Significantly, electronic paper does not need to be backlit (like LCD screens) or have a continuous source of power to refresh the image once it’s formed. Earlier this year, Sony along with Philips Electronics and E Ink launched an e-book based on digital ink technology—a significant milestone in the ongoing quest for a practical alternative to paper.

The digital ink in the pot so far has been black-and-white. Only recently, Israeli start-up Magink Display Technologies successfully crossed the multi-colour barrier, and its digital ink technology is already revolutionising the market for large displays such as on billboards and at sports stadiums, railway stations and malls. Each electronic-paper sign (manufactured by Mitsubishi) equipped with Magink technology can be updated instantly via a remotely controlled wireless transmission.

It seems like the pixels are finally falling into place now. Yet, it could be quite a while before you curl up in bed to read a customised version of the latest bestseller on your personal e-book, and even longer before electronic paper is made thin and flexible enough to fashion into a digital book with reprogrammable pages capable of storing an entire library.

So even as the endless paperless chase continues, don’t forget to stop awhile and plant a few more trees.

Val Souza, Consulting Editor

valsouza@expresscomputeronline.com