Recycling is indeed good, but we shouldn't recycle paper.
It uses less energy and costs less money to plant a tree specifically to make paper from it than it does to take used paper and go through the process of making it into new paper.
Saying we should recycle paper because it saves trees is like saying we shouldn't eat chips in order to save the potatoes. Paper is made from trees that were planted specifically to make paper. Paper is not made from the homes of Amazonian aboriginals.
Deforestation is indeed a problem, but it's not caused by the paper making industry. New paper was made by having trees exist for a few decades. Recycled paper was made by having a recycling plant exist.
Aluminum, most plastics, all that stuff should be recycled. It uses more energy to make an aluminum can from mined bauxite that it does to make one from a recycled can. In addition, we will one day run out of aluminum and oil. The same cannot be said for paper.
The only advantage to recycling paper is that is creates jobs in the paper recycling industry. But if we want to pay people to do something pointless and expensive, we might as well pay them to cut grass with nail scissors. At least that would have a positive net effect on the planet, albeit a pathetically pointless one.
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