Both options are far better than sending it to the landfill.

However, in the case of paper and card products I think recycling them is the best option for the environment. It replaces pulp that would otherwise come from new wood. Even with managed plantations our current wood consumption is not sustainable and it requires large amounts of land. Recycling paper also saves energy as it is easier to process than new wood.

Of course, before we even think about waste disposal, we should consider ways to avoid making the waste in the first place. I'm trying to find ways to use less paper products. I've stopped using throw away paper towels and tissues (except for loo paper!), and like many people I'm using a lot more electronic media, such as emailing, reading articles on-line and watching the TV for news. You can also share magazine/paper subscriptions with friends who have similar interests, as well as checking if your local library have magazines and papers.

Recycling is important, but it will never match the benefits of just using less.

If paper and newspaper can be recyled in local plants, that would certainly be a higher use, energy wise. However, if paper is to be shipped a couple of thousand miles to a paper plant, it makes more sense to compost it locally. The use of fossil fuels to ship biodegradable waste products long distances doesn't make a lot of sense.

However, materials which use a lot of energy to produce and process, such as aluminum, might be more energy efficient to ship.

I second exactly what seraphima says - the primary problem with recycling paper is it has to be shipped to a mill that can repulp it for reuse, and there's not necessarily one with easy reach of you .... fuel used in freighting all our products around is where a large part of the impact happens

OTOH, I know that there are paper mills in Canada that deliver truckloads of newsprint south, and instead of the trucks coming back empty, they take on loads of recycleable paper along the way back to the mill

Bill

Shipping paper back to the mill does use energy, but if it wasn't sent back then that mill will need new wood to process. Thus, more land consumption for growing trees, then they have to be logged and transported (surely in some cases further than the recycling paper?) and when they arrive at the mill they need a lot more energy intensive processing. Trees, land and energy are limited resources, and making new paper consumes all three of them, while recycling existing paper uses just one of them, energy. It often uses less than making new paper too.

You might be surprised just how far the wood to make your paper travels. For example, here in the UK so much of our paper is made from imported wood, and yet we landfill vast amounts of potentially recyclable paper.

I'm starting to think there isn't an easy answer to this, it very much depends where you live.