COP26: From packaging to milk cartons, how the UK’s paper waste exports present a hidden climate threat

Unread newspapers, corrugated sheets discarded after unwrapping electronic gadgets, tissue or milk cartons from British homes arrive, tightly packed, at Indian factories in a growing stream. They are pulped and remade into fresh paper to meet India’s growing demand for it. Paper waste is sometimes seen as a shining example of how things can be almost endlessly recycled. But it is in fact a new example of a product exported to pollute distant parts of the world, environmental activists say, moving and reshaping waste to skirt regulations.