Self-Erasing Paper?

In an effort to reduce the amount of paper offices go through every day, the folks at Xerox have come up with a novel printing technique that seems fascinating. According to news.com, Xerox's self-erasing paper is specially coated, then printed on with what appears to be a purple ink. No toner is actually used in the system. When left alone, the ink will disappear in 16 hours. If you need fresh paper sooner, though, simply place the paper back into the printer/copier, and the sheets will act like clean paper, emerging with only the new print marks. While my initial thoughts were that this just makes it that much easier to erase a paper trail, I grew much fonder of the idea when I started thinking about how much paper we use in schools and offices every day. According to Xerox's studies, 45% of the paper used in meetings and memos ends up in recycling bins by the end of the month, while most documents end up stored on hard drives and e-mail. While the idea is still in the development phase, Xerox has yet to announce whether they'll mass-market the technology; here's hoping they do.  Link via G4's The Feed.