Hardcopy Technologies and the Carbon Footprint
also in emerging countries-the Internet user population and digital data traffic are growing explosively. An increasing number of general consumers can send and receive e-mail, submit electronic payments, or read online newspapers on PCs, smart phones, and mobile phones. Changes in reading habits are observed, especially, in the generation born during and after the 1990s and who have become familiar with digital equipment and keyboards since they were very small. Electronic book contents, the volume of which is equivalent to thousands of books, can be stored on an electronic book with a reflective display and wireless connectivity or on a tablet PC with a low-power-consumption MPU and carried around. It is said that this will revolutionize the traditional publishing or newspaper business. Under the circumstances, some people think that printing on paper will become extinct, and the trend toward a paperless society will accelerate, as the Internet is further developed and PCs, smart phones, and electronic books become more sophisticated and less expensive. The daily edition of a newspaper in developed countries weighs approximately 200 grams, and thus 70 kilograms of paper is consumed per year per subscriber. The volume of paper consumed by general offices in developed countries remains almost unchanged; each office worker consumes 40 kilograms of paper every year. Fifty percent of used paper is thrown away in paper waste bins every week. According to an empirical rule, the volume of paper consumption is in proportion to the GDP. Will emerging countries such as China, India, and Brazil consume the same amount of paper as developed countries in the near future due to their economic growth? According to an environment-related report from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden in 2007, when we read a newspaper, the electricity consumed to produce paper-based print media per person and to browse online media for 30 minutes every day are almost the same, approximately 240 kWh a year. It cannot be thought as accidental coincidence and is apparently based on the economic principle observed during the period of transition from old media to new media. Ecology means economy is the saying often cited in the context of how a company should approach the environment and means that what is good for the environment is economical. It is presumed that this was achieved in the battle between old and new media in the market. At the IS&T NIP25 keynote speech last year, I reported that the amount of CO2 emissions is the same when we carefully read an A4-size document on a PC screen for five minutes and when we duplex print the same document on A4-size paper. It may not be either environmentally or human friendly to promote a full paperless society with energy saving technology of this level, which can be realized by today’s information and communication technology. In recent years, excellent image quality, high speed, high reliability, and low running costs were realized for both electrophotographic print and inkjet print, which are the best two digital printing technologies. This achievement starts to be applied to the production print business in full scale. One of the issues often discussed in the publishing industry is inventory. Because paper is bulky, when a new book is published, the same amount of old books must be returned as long as the space in bookstores is limited. The rate of return exceeds 40% and reaches 50% in Japan and the developed countries in Europe. Digital printing is a technology that enables us to print after receiving orders, and it has become a reality as a measure to resolve the situation. Inventory may be optimized by positive application of this technology. The copier and printer companies have gone through fierce competition. If they enter into the huge production printing market by applying digital printing technology, it may contribute to a reduction in the carbon footprint of print media. Print media will be able to continue sound growth, if the industry monitors illegal logging in emerging countries, conserves forests, which are the source of paper pulp, treats their CO2 absorption as equivalent to the reduction of emissions, completes a social system for recycling waste paper, and converts the energy needed for paper manufacturing to renewable ones, such as wind and solar.
Koji Hirakura
Executive Engineer 16-1 Shinei-Cho Tsuzuki-Ku Yokohama 2240035, Japan
国际会议
The 31st International Congress on Imaging Science(第31届国际影像科学大会 ICIS2010)
北京
英文
9-9
2010-05-12（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）