The familiar whirl of wrapping paper, glittering ribbons and ornate cards ushers in the joyous spirit of giving at Christmas.

But an environmental concern lurks beneath the sparkle as a staggering volume of discarded paper ends up in landfill or incineration instead of recycling plants.

Kemsley Paper Mill, near Sittingbourne in Kent, is the largest mill for recycled papers in the UK, and the second largest in Europe.

This means a good chunk on the cardboard waste set to be produced this Christmas – enough to stretch from London to Lapland in Finland and back 103 times – is destined for the plant owned by packaging firm DS Smith

Niels Flierman, head of paper and recycling at DS Smith, said: “We’ve done a recent study about recycling habits and what we see is that the older generation is more likely to recycle versus the younger generation. Older generations are probably more disciplined about recycling but also have a belief that it leads to better use of natural resources.”

UK recycling rate for paper and cardboard already among the worst in Europe, and problem is growing each year

The UK’s paper and cardboard recycling rate is already among the lowest in Europe, with Brits ranking 25th out of 30 European nations at just 74 per cent, compared to the European average of 82 per cent.

Mr Flierman said “If we look at the overall volume of paper for recycling generated per country, Germany is by far the biggest country with nine million tonnes.

“After that you’ve got France and the UK with similar numbers but half of that volume so 4.5 to five million tonnes but if you look at the recycling rates, Germany is close to 90 per cent and the UK is 74 per cent.

“So there’s a lot to go after. One of the most important factors is making sure the collection systems are in place and well understood just to make sure people can sort, aggregate and separate cardboard fibre from other waste streams.”

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Up to 140 lorries shuttling bales of paper from homes and businesses arrive at Kemsley every single day.

A robotic near-infrared technology means a probe drills into the stacks to measure plastic contamination and keep a tighter check on materials quality.

Jonathan Scott, technical operations manager at Kemsley Mill, said: “We’ve definitely seen changes in the composition of the paper that we get for recycling thanks to online shopping. We’re seeing less newsprint, less direct mail and less office paper’s coming through.

“But we’re seeing a far greater proportion of packaging because of online shopping.”

The cardboard bales which arrive on site are then processed into pulp through a pulper, this is where it is mixed with warm water which breaks down the cardboard and causes the fibres to separate from each other.

The diluted fibres are formed, pressed and dried into paper at high speed on a large machine. The paper is then wound into large reels of finished paper.

As we look ahead to Christmas, Mr Scott said there is one quick simple way to see if wrapping paper is recyclable – the scrunch test. 

He added: “If you take a sheet of wrapping paper, scrunch it up. If it stays scrunched, recycle it with paper card. If it doesn’t stay scrunched, it’s plastic or another material and please don’t put it with paper card recycling.”

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“After that you’ve got France and the UK with similar numbers but half of that volume so 4.5 to five million tonnes but if you look at the recycling rates, Germany is close to 90 percent and the UK is 74 percent.

“So there’s a lot to go after. One of the most important factors is making sure the collection systems are in place and well understood just to make sure people can sort, aggregate and separate cardboard fibre from other waste streams.”

Up to 140 lorries shuttling bales of paper from homes and businesses arrive at Kemsley every single day.

A robotic near-infrared technology means a probe drills into the stacks to measure plastic contamination and keep a tighter check on materials quality.

Jonathan Scott, technical operations manager at Kemsley Mill, said: “We’ve definitely seen changes in the composition of the paper that we get for recycling thanks to online shopping. We’re seeing less newsprint, less direct mail and less office paper’s coming through.

“But we’re seeing a far greater proportion of packaging because of online shopping.”

The cardboard bales which arrive on site are then processed into pulp through a pulper, this is where it is mixed with warm water which breaks down the cardboard and causes the fibres to separate from each other.

The diluted fibres are formed, pressed and dried into paper at high speed on a large machine. The paper is then wound into large reels of finished paper.

As we look ahead to Christmas, Mr Scott said there is one quick simple way to see if wrapping paper is recyclable – the scrunch test. 

He added: “If you take a sheet of wrapping paper, scrunch it up. If it stays scrunched, recycle it with paper card. If it doesn’t stay scrunched, it’s plastic or another material and please don’t put it with paper card recycling.”

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