About 40% of landfill is made up of paper, nearly 1% of carbon emissions are due to paper production and the chemicals used in inks and paper production are big sources of pollution. So it’s no surprise scientists and companies are turning their minds to eco-friendly printing technology.

One company has invented a device that captures air pollution and turns it into safe, high quality ink for art. Russian scientists have used nano-technology to develop a new colourless ink that can amazingly still print in colour, but which is completely safe for the environment.

And now scientists have found a crazy new way to print on paper using light. A mix of nanoparticles formed from Prussian blue dye and titanium oxide are applied to regular old paper, which then changes colour when exposed to UV light. The colour change can be reversed through heating and the paper can be reused up to 80 times!

While these innovations are yet to be commercially available it’s probably only a matter of time… So watch this space!