Using flexible plastic instead would be lighter, cheaper and less likely to break in a laptop computer that was dropped.

ECONOMIST: Just press print

His tail, plush feet and moving pointed plastic ears are all a slightly lighter shade.

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The cases are 20% lighter and contain less plastic than their predecessors.

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"The carbon fibre reinforced plastic parts are at least 30% lighter than aluminium and 50% lighter than steel for identical component use, so the vehicle weighs 300kg less than an ordinary vehicle, " Mr Bauman explains.

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However with the introduction of lighter weight and more flexible plastic substrate magnetic tapes, combined with a vacuum column to control the tension that the magnetic tape experiences during use, the IBM 726 was a prototype of the modern digital tape recording system.

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Cheaper, lighter panels, increasingly made of plastic, can then be hung on this skeleton.

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The Dreamliner uses technology that allows much of it to be made of plastic composites instead of aluminium, which means it is lighter and, Boeing claims, will consume 20% less fuel than other, similar-sized planes.

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It's thicker than most tablets, but substantially lighter (just 1.1 lbs), and the extra plastic gives your hands comfortable grip room, even if the glossy finish warrants the usual grumbling about fingerprints.

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It is not only electronic gadgets that have become smaller and lighter over the years even as their performance has improved but many other things too, from cars to plastic bags.

ECONOMIST: Less is more