We are terrible at using recycled paper, and it's having a shockingly bad effect on the planet

Estimates show the pulp and paper industry is responsible for a shocking 7.5% of global carbon emissions, far higher than air transport, writes Donnachadh McCarthy

A larch forest in the UK. The government has been warned planting the wrong trees in the wrong places can have adverse impacts on soils, water quality, and biodiversity (Getty )

The UK has a massive paper recycling problem. While we have become better at recycling, we remain dire at buying recycled paper products. As a result, according to the Recycling Association, the UK exports a staggering 8 million tons of waste paper every year. And since China recently banned all imports of waste paper, the price for recycled paper in the EU has collapsed due to the lack of domestic markets.

This raises questions such as, why do we not use more recycled paper products in the UK? And whose interests are we serving instead? Over the last 15 years, working as an eco-auditor, I encouraged my clients to switch to recycled photocopying paper. But the biggest problem I faced was that many of them thought that if their paper was FSC certified, then it was the best paper to buy or they thought that it meant that it was recycled paper. But the FSC paper that they were buying was likely to be the same European forest virgin (i.e. new) paper that they had always bought.