If we had e-ink readers that allowed to quickly scan through piles of documents, good search capabilities and cheap enough to have a pile of the on the desk, then paper would be gone in an instant.

I have cut down on my paper notes massively with reMarkable 2. Unfortunately this thing is so slow, it does not let you meaningfully go through documents. There is also no way to quickly search through your notes - again, it's too slow. But you can always have some sort of a naming system or just search on a computer.

The deal breaker, however, is lack of encryption. That is you can't really use it for anything sensitive and definitely not for business.

If someone solves this problem, they could become billionaires, but make no mistake - paper lobby is still strong. They had enough influence to outlaw cannabis cultivation worldwide, they'll have no problem whacking someone trying to kill their paper tiger.

Fundamentally the problem is not encryption. It sounds nice, that this is the key to the situation, but that is focusing on a technical addendum.

The real issue, why [we businesses] must, and still do, print (pretty much) everything is RETENTION. That is, the law requires business transaction documents to be retained for a minimum of 7 years. Can a computer be absolutely trusted to not lose the data - by any and every mean - for 7 years? For a record to not become corrupted in any manner? For a fundamental chain of proof that this record has never been altered sometime after the initial transaction, especially if the customer authorizes / signs / confirms the details?

Sadly we are at a state of technology where paper, STILL, is the only level of proof that retains those features. A signed contract on paper can be proven to be unaltered by comparing the client and source copies. Can this be guaranteed by computer, 40 years from now when that legal will needs to be read back under oath? We can barely read legacy storage media from 25 years ago, forget 40. Will that HDD still spin up after 40 years??

So we are STUCK with paper unless, and until, someone makes digital storage media that is stable and accessible for at least 50 years, plus say add confirmed blockchain to any document that can be construed as a legal document in any court or inspection.

Very good points!

I think viable option may be Blu-ray and crypto signatures - technically that storage should last at least 50 years when stored appropriately, but who knows if you will be able to get the reader anywhere in 20 or so years.

Probably you could. There is still a way to read old floppies...

And what of museums and libraries' collections of old books and documents? The Magna Carta survives because it was written on vellum (story to all the vegan readers). Social historians want to read documents over 100 years old and some UK government documents are embargoed from public access for 100 years. The national records office at Kew must be worried about what they can preserve of current government documentation for future generations to mull over.

You sure about the using of old floppies?

Plenty of grandfathers are disappointing grandmothers!

The number of documents I need to print per year for personal reasons might amount to about a dozen or so. For WFH, the number of documents I need to print is none. I do print some because a hard copy is sometimes more convenient to use. While I might extreme in my numbers, the point is for many there are relatively few documents one might need to print versus print for convenience. As people get more used to viewing documents electronically, the number will continue to drop.

Agreed. The only reasons I print are:

1. To have something to mark up as I work on a problem (notes on a schematic, etc)

2. Archival long term storage storage

3. Label or cutout images

I may have printed 20 or 30 pages this year.

Aside: Where does the data in the article come from? I can't believe a "survey" would be very accurate...you'd want to pull the page numbers from each of the printers in your office & add them all up. Unless the printer manufacturers are telemetering that data...

>Where does the data in the article come from? I

A lot of office printers are sold on per page charges, especially for the highest volume users.

Then you can add in toner / drum sales and paper supplies.

Our main use of office printer seems to be expense claims.

For some reason they all have to be printed out and filed away in cabinets for years on end.

Biggest irony is photocopying receipts onto A4 paper because they don't want to bother with stacks of little bits of till-roll stapled to the claim form.

So how many people have an A3 printer at home?

I do.

Me too (I only ever seem to use it for A4 printing, but it is important to have the capability).

A3 inkjets are very affordable, mine can also print and scan duplex, has an adf, cable network, wifi, second paper tray, all for less than 400 Eur.

"...all for less than 400 Eur"

... per page! Ink's expensive.

Ironically the bigger the page the less ink you use - assuming large format inkjets are used for schematics or architectural plans.

Unless hipsters now print out "blueprints" out of nostalgia. I'm old enough to remember actually using blueprint printers as a PFY.

Needed to print for the various tests and exams prep that the children have had to go through. Averaging a few hundred pages a month across 3 children.

Have a £3 or so HP Instant Ink thing though so it's not a problem and plenty of roll over pages.

Paper per se isn't so much of a problem as it can be produced from renewable resources in managed forests or other sources of cellulose, though of course many of the plantations of trees for paper have turned into boomerangs. It's great for archiving as it can't be wiped by magnets or EMP or require a dedicated device for reading.

And the real offenders, who print out a copy of nearly everything (all the pages of all the presentations in all the e-mails), are still at it.

[1]Paper manufacturing is intensely pollutive and energy consuming , and the kind of trees used for it are mostly eucalyptus, who are among the worst water draining and soil exhausting species, so paper production is very much a problem.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2468584419300479

I suspect that the inclination to print important documents increases directly with the number of times you've had a hard-drive give up the ghost.

No electronic storage technology is 100% reliable, amd certainly a technology that looks great today may turn out to be like the "indestructible" CD media we all bought 25 years ago.

When I'm heading to the airport I carry the ticket on paper against the chance that at some critical point my smart phone battery runs out.

My experience after 40 odd years of computers and electronic storage is that you have to assume that they'll fail you and plan accordingly.

And of course, backup everything.

And of course, backup everything.

By printing off two copies...