The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has increased its targets for packaging waste recovery for all materials – including paper, glass, aluminium and plastic – to 72% for 2008, 73% for 2009 and 74% for 2010. The 2010 paper target is 69.5%, but the CPI said the industry had already achieved a recycling rate of more than 80%.

Waste minister Joan Ruddock said: "These increased targets represent our commitment to drive up recycling in Great Britain and tackle dangerous climate change.”

A CPI spokesperson said: "The actual recycling rate of UK paper packaging waste is likely to be significantly higher than that declared within the packaging waste regulatory framework, leading to even greater carbon savings than is known to Defra."

The organisation added that the market was clearly working well and questioned the need for paper to remain in the Defra targets, with the resulting bureaucratic burden.

The biggest risk to the UK meeting future targets on paper recycling, according to the CPI, is the fact that the more than 50% of recovered paper collected is currently sold and shipped abroad.

"Global demand remains high, but it is imperative that the UK recovery industry continues to produce a high-quality product in order to remain competitive both at home and abroad," the statement says.

The other fear is that a further expansion of co-mingled collections, where paper and other recyclables such as glass, plastic and metals are collected together, could result in quality degradation.