Printing and coffee: two of the most fundamental parts of your workday at the office. A new technology now brings them together.

From South Korea comes the RITI inkbox. You fill the cartridge for with coffee or tea dregs and a little water. You insert it in the printer and start outputting pages, with a brownish ink. The printer is compact and easily portable, with an elegant design.

Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks with the first version. The quality isn’t very good and the machine is slow and low-capacity. Worst of all, you have to crank the printer by hand. That may be a plus, as you get some exercise and presumably print only the essential. And, if you’re hopped up on caffeine, a little exercise might do you good. Also on the plus side, your documents should smell good!

Yes, it is pretty useless. The machine was the winner of a design contest for Greener Gadgets. But the point is that a lot of minds are making steady progress at making printing inks and toners more eco-friendly and recyclable. There’s still a lot of room for technical breakthroughs, and even some pretty off-the-wall stuff may deserve a look.

Tags: coffee, eco-friendy, RITI inkbox