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Every year, about 10 million tons of paper winds up in American landfills and incinerators, which is not only wasteful but adds CO2 to the atmosphere. Recycling helps, but even that material has to be repulped and paper-ized before you can use it to print out that recipe you’ll never make. But what if you could wipe the page clean and use it again?
在美国，每年有约1000万吨的纸被丢进了垃圾堆或倾倒在焚化炉中，这不仅造成了大量的纸张浪费，还增加了大气中二氧化碳的含量。把纸张回收是个办法，但必须通过再次成浆和纸化之后才能重新变成打印纸——目前还没有这样的方法。但是，如果现在你只需把纸张擦拭干净就可继续使用，这会怎么样？
Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation to the rescue. A new study shows that laser light can erase the toner from a piece of printed paper. The approach appears in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
激光派上了用场。一项新的研究表明，激光可以清除打印纸上的墨粉。该方法刊登在《英国皇家学会》上。
Taking a page from the art-restoration handbook, scientists sampled a variety of light sources to see if any could be used to strip the ink from laser-printed documents without damaging or discoloring the paper. UV and infrared were too harsh. But a bright green laser applied in 4 nanosecond pulses vaporizes the print, leaving paper that looks as good as new.
科学家从一本艺术修复手册上取下了一张纸，然后尝试了多种光源，看看是否可以去除激光打印纸上的油墨同时不损坏纸张或让纸张褪色。紫外线和红外线太强烈了。但一道4纳秒脉冲的明亮的绿色激光将纸张上的油墨成功气化，得到了崭新如初的一张纸。
Such unprinters will probably run about 30,000 bucks, so they probably won’t catch on for home use. But people in the recycling world might find that the green laser fits the bill—for making paper that’s really green.
这种装置（我们可以称之为unprinter）大概3万块美元左右，所以如今还不适合家庭使用。但回收行业的人可能会觉得这种装置物有所值——可以实现真正的绿色造纸。
注：本文译文属可可英语原创，未经允许，请勿转载。
