Here’s a novel (no pun intended) use for that old unwanted book or printout – why not turn its paper into a writing instrument? That takes the whole concept of recycling one step further – and sure enough, this innovation is at concept stage only. But it appears very slick, as well as interesting.

From IPPINKA, the Niagara Falls, NY-based company that “wants you to consume less,” the P2P intends to “turn paper into pencils.” According to the designers, “the machine takes used memos and other recyclable pieces of paper and transforms them into usable pencils … Simply feed the waste paper into the designated slot and the machine rolls and compresses it, inserts the lead, and then applies a small amount of glue to bond the pencil together. The pencil then automatically slides out the side hole which also doubles as an electric pencil sharpener.”

As you can see, the P2P still needs separate leads and won’t run on paper alone – although maybe future versions will burn up paper and compress the ashes to make charcoal pencil leads. Still, it looks a pretty elegant and fun replacement for the shredder or waste basket. Will it ever see production? Don’t start cutting back on stationery orders just yet …

 

1 COMMENT

  1. Seems like an awesome idea. I went to the IPPINKA site, and had just a moment to read all about how they value great design before the page was obscured by a “registration” dialogue box that could not be closed unless I registered with facebook or gave them my email address.

    So much for good design. Too bad. I probably would have bought one if their site weren’t so annoying.

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.