TODAY'S newspaper may no longer be tomorrow's fish and chip wrapping – in fact it is more likely to be tomorrow's newspaper again.

In the last year, 24,158 tonnes of paper were collected for recycling in Derbyshire, which represents 16% of all the household waste recycled in the county during the year and 7% of the total household waste collected.

And in Derby, 5,777 tonnes of paper was collected through the blue bag scheme.

Much of our waste paper ends up at Aylesford Newsprint Limited in Kent.

At this huge facility it is processed and made into new newspaper, ready to carry the next headlines into our homes.

Gemma Barratt is head of recycling at Aylesford Newsprint.

"Used newspapers and magazines are not waste – they're essential raw material," she said.

"If they weren't recycled into new paper they would only end up in landfill. We use 100% recycled paper to produce newsprint here, so recycling really does benefit the environment."

About a fifth of household rubbish is made up of newspaper and magazines.

So without recycling a forest the size of Wales would have to be felled to provide the amount of paper Britain uses each year.

Most of the paper to be recycled is collected through the kerbside schemes of district and borough councils, as well as paper banks at sites such as supermarket car parks. In total this accounted for 23,218 tonnes of paper last year.

A further 940 tonnes was collected at Derbyshire County Council's household waste recycling centres.

In Derby, as well as the blue bag scheme, paper is also collected from Raynesway Household Waste and Recycling Centre.

All the paper collected via the blue bag scheme in the city is taken to the plant in Kent.

But last year paper from Raynesway went to HW Martins Materials Recovery Facility, in Leeds, and material collected at Derby's paper banks went to Palm Recycling and Bridgewater Paper in Cheshire.

Councillor John Allsop, Derbyshire County Council's cabinet member for technology and recycling, said: "Recycling is so important.

"Using recycled materials to make paper uses less energy than that required for producing new paper from raw materials – even when you add all the associated costs including transport.

"It's amazing to think that the newspapers we buy have had previous lives as other newspapers or magazines.

"It's good to be able to see first-hand the difference recycling makes.

"The idea of burying all that paper in landfill doesn't bear thinking about and doesn't make sense.

"The people of Derbyshire have always been good at recycling paper so we want to show them the good work they're doing, how beneficial their efforts are – and encourage them to keep on doing it."

Councillor Chris Poulter, cabinet member for Derby City Council, added: "Derby city residents are some of the best at recycling in the country.

"We are consistently at the top of the ratings for recycling and are still improving.

"The fact that paper is collected separately and not co-mingled with household waste means that we get more money for what we collect and have won awards for the quality of our collections."