Disposable Printer: Good Or Bad Idea?

In today’s environmentally aware society, it seems everything is moving towards robust, long lasting and environmentally friendly products that can be recycled and used again and again. However, some people think that this is not the way to do things. There are materials out there that can be used over and over again without losing much of their purity. A couple of designers set out to create something that pretty much all of us are using daily at our work. It’s something that could become disposable, for what reason I don’t know.

Designers Yuexun Chen & Chia-Chen Hsiao have come up with an idea to create printers so small they could literally fit in your pocket. Due to the size of them, or the simplistic design of them, they can’t be refilled and used again. Therefore, it is a disposable product that can be used one time (meaning one ink filling).

Whether this is a good or bad idea I can’t seem to decide. No matter how I look at it, I can’t seem to justify the use of printers that I can only use a few times before I have to throw in the garbage. Maybe it is a total waste of resources, or maybe it is a genius idea that will catch on. To my hearts content, it’s only a concept product so far so that gives me a little more time to make up my mind about the whole thing. I would truly like to know what you, as a user and consumer, think about this kind of thing. Does it really have a place in today’s society and does it serve any purpose?