Paper & card recycling: carbon footprint per tonne recycled
Live factor value
4.65 kgCO2e per tonne recycled
Source: UK DESNZ greenhouse-gas conversion factors, 2026 (revision 2). Factor set desnz-2026-r2.
Recycling a tonne of mixed paper and card carries the near-negligible official disposal footprint shown live below — single-digit kilograms of CO2e. Landfilling the same tonne is catastrophic by comparison: over a tonne of CO2e, because paper is exactly the digestible organic matter that becomes landfill methane.
That ~250-fold gap makes paper the highest-stakes sorting decision in ordinary waste streams. It also feeds back into making new paper: recycled pulp displaces part of the (much larger) primary-production footprint of virgin board. For events, capture rate is the metric — every uncaptured tonne of card is a tonne on the methane route.
Worked example
250 kg of event signage card recycled: 0.25 × 4.65 = 1.2 kgCO2e.
Measure your own with the free event calculator.
Frequently asked questions
- What happens if paper goes to landfill instead?
- The official factor jumps from a few kg CO2e per tonne (recycling) to over 1,100 kg (landfill) — paper's cellulose digests into methane underground, making it one of the worst materials to bury.