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Eco-MFP
Since launching its erasable toner Eco-MFP
last year, Toshiba has sold just over 100 units
worldwide, one of them to a training company
in Newport, Wales
The perfect fit
Robot printer
PrintIT
’s great admiration
for Toshiba’s erasable Eco
MFP as a concept has never
quite banished the serious
misgivings it has about the
technology’s commercial
possibilities. Are businesses
sufficiently concerned about
paper waste to implement
new processes (the erasure,
scanning and re-use of paper)
if there is no financial benefit
in doing so?
Most aren’t, but where
a specific application that
generates a lot of straight-
to-bin printing meets an
embedded culture of corporate
social responsibility (CSR), it
may be possible to build a case
for the e-STUDIO306LP Eco-
MFP and associated e-STUDIO
RD30 eraser unit.
Just such a combination
exists at Mountain View
Residential and Respite
Services (MVRRS), a sub-
contract training provider and
approved supplier to the Skills
Funding Agency (SFA).
Specialising in the health
and social care sector, MVRRS
operates out of a 4,808
square foot teaching facility
in Newport city centre and an
administrative centre in Cleppa
Park on the city’s outskirts.
Since it was founded in 2010,
it has helped thousands of
individuals obtain QCF, NVQ,
VRQ and other qualifications.
Printing is one of the
services MVRRS offers to
students, but as Lead Tutor
Tracy Lindique explains,
the amount of waste paper
produced was a concern for a
company that has a strict CSR
policy and has won recognition
for its environmental
stewardship in the form of a
Green Dragon Environmental
Management Standard Award
and a Plan-It Eco Award.
“We do all we can to
give students access to the
information that will help
them succeed on their chosen
course. Much of this tends
to be via the Internet, which
is an excellent resource but
often results in anything up
to 10 pages being printed in
order to get a single piece
of information. Although we
recycled the waste paper, it
was still a cause for concern
but we didn’t know what more
we could do to address the
problem,” she said.
they operate – albeit only
slightly. In fact, according to
Lindique, MVRRS tutors and
students found no discernible
difference between using the
Eco-MFP and the previous
e-STUDIO256SE. When a
printed page is no longer
needed it is placed in a
recycling bin and once a week
she erases them so that they
can be re-used.
“Integrating the Eco-MFP
into our day-to-day operations
couldn’t have been easier, and
staff and learners alike have
completely bought into the
concept. Managing waste is a
key element of our CSR policy
and not only is this technology
good for the environment, it
offers an excellent return on
investment,” she said.
One of its students
calculated that MVRRS is saving
a ream of paper (£2.50) every
fortnight, equating to £65 over
the course of a year. As each
piece of paper can be re-used
a further five times, the total
annual saving comes to £325.
Of greater import is the
publicity that Toshiba’s
erasable toner MFP has
generated for MVRRS in the
local press and amongst local
and national government
organisations. This has
reinforced the company’s CSR
credentials and been a help in
generating additional business.
A video of Toshiba’s erasable
toner technology can be
viewed at
watch?v=r--y9VvSTyg
Last month
Nikkei Technology
carried reports
of another unusual printing technology.
The Robot Printer developed by Fuji Xerox saves users from
having to get up and walk to a printer and instead delivers
print-outs straight to the user.
It knows when someone wants to print and where they are
sitting because printing is done through an internet browser and
each workstation has its own smartcard with a URL for printing.
To print, a user accesses their designated URL and drops the
relevant file into the browser. The robot automatically moves to
the workstation the print job was sent from. Printing starts when
the user holds up their smartcard for authentication.
Once the document has been printed, the user presses a
button on the built-in tablet and the Robot Printer moves back to
its home position to await new instructions.
A prototype was trialled successfully in a Tokyo business
lounge this summer, but there are more effective secure printing
solutions, so it is uncertain if this will ever come to market.
In late 2013, Toshiba
TEC sales executive
Antony McCarthy was in
discussions with MVRRS
about a new e-STUDIO MFP
for their administration and
management office when
MVRRS director Chris Churcher
mentioned the problem of
paper waste in the training
facility. McCarthy told him about
the Eco-MFP and suggested a
two-week trial in May 2014.
The Eco-MFP looks like a
typical MFP and uses standard
copier paper, but instead of
black toner it uses an erasable
blue toner that allows a sheet
of paper to be printed and
erased five times or more,
cutting paper consumption
and waste by 80%. The eraser
unit doubles as a document
scanner, creating an electronic
record of erased documents
that can be retrieved and
worked on from any location.
One concern a business
might have about introducing
such a system is that it requires
people to change the way
Image credit: Nikkei Technology
