Why it’s Breakthrough: It’s a machine that turns ordinary recycled paper into perfectly usable toilet paper. Everything is done automatically, and it takes about 30 minutes to convert 40 sheets into one roll.

Credit: Oriental Co., Ltd.

The Story: It’s called the “White Goat,” and this animal does wonderful things with paper. The Japanese company behind it, Oriental Co., Ltd., claim that the machine not only saves 60 cedar trees per year, but it also minimizes office paper waste.

By using 40 sheets of standard A4 office paper and some water, one roll of toilet paper is created in about 30 minutes. The way it works is fairly simple: first, a built-in shredder cuts the paper into ribbons, which then move to a pulper where those ribbons are dissolved in water. The resulting pulp is thinned out, dried, and rolled up into ready-to-use toilet paper. Each roll costs about 10 Yen (11¢) to make, compared to a store-bought roll of about 60¢.

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Currently, the 1.8-meter-high machine is scheduled for sale this summer for $100,000. At that price, the White Goat would have to covert 200,000 recycled rolls to break even, independent of the costs to run the machine, which means if the machine is running 24/7, it would take a little over 11 years to produce the 200,000 rolls. However, it’s not just about saving money over the long haul, it’s about saving trees, saving paper and above all, saving all our asses.