Recycling paper does have other advantages compared with virgin paper: cutting import bills, reducing water use by nearly 60%, energy consumption by 40%, air pollution by 74% and water pollution by 35%
The Nordic countries provide a very high percentage of the world's paper - and their forests are increasing. An admirable forestry practice of planting two trees for every one harvested has produced a huge increase in afforested areas, albeit often of single tree types rather than the mixed woodland we all feel a warm glow about. Unless cut down, trees die and decay naturally, releasing the carbon dioxide - the major greenhouse gas - which they had trapped during their lives. Cutting them down doesn't increase overall the carbon dioxide release. Conversely, planting more trees has created more carbon dioxide absorbers. Turning the wood into paper fixes some of that carbon dioxide. If the paper is recycled, which can be done a maximum of four times to maintain fibre strength, and is then landfilled, the paper slowly degrades and releases the same carbon dioxide as the naturally dying tree, but with the addition of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas. Burning waste paper for fuel once its useful life is over similarly releases that trapped carbon dioxide, but without the methane. There is no net carbon dioxide increase. But using waste paper to produce energy has another important side benefit as far as the greenhouse effect is concerned - the energy produced displaces energy that would otherwise have been generated from fossil fuels, which do produce a net carbon dioxide increase.