The Answer to Unnecessary Paperwork?

If you've ever wanted to express how you feel about your company's refusal to go paperless, a Japanese company may have the answer. It's invented a machine that converts office waste paper into toilet paper. About 1,800 sheets of discarded office paper produces two rolls. Given that a typical American office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of office paper each year, your company may never have to buy toilet paper again.

Then again, don't call the supply company to cancel your standing order for toilet paper yet. The machine is heavy (1,300 pounds) and expensive ($95,000), and there's no information available about how much energy it requires to do its thing. So your greenest options remain the common-sense ones: Buy recycled paper products, reduce the amount of paper you use, and recycle used paper instead of throwing it away.