"The rise of full-colour, high-coverage inkjet printing is causing headaches for the paper recycling industry," said the group based in north London.

"Inkjet particles are too large to be separated from the paper so they stay in the paper and affect the whiteness and construction of recycled material."

MBA was campaigning at the European Parliament to raise awareness and prompt it to introduce self regulation for inkjet printing businesses and boost support of alternative technologies.

London MEP Marina Yannakoudakis recently visited MBA on a fact-finding mission and had raised the issue in the European Parliament, said the company.

Yannakoudakis told the parliament the complicated process of recycling inkjet paper made it expensive while using extra bleach made it less environmentally friendly.

"Companies need to be encouraged and incentives should be offered to make the process economically more even handed, she said.

MBA uses oil and solvent-based inks for most of its printing, which it said were better for recycling.

Xerox used Ipex to preview a high-speed production inkjet machine using granulated resin-based inks, enabling document de-inking, difficult to achieve with other inks.

"Xerox’s production inkjet technology is the only one without applying costly pre-coating materials to the paper to receive high de-inkability," said a spokesman.