Timber waste is much better burnt in some form of electricity + heat generation process. It can be done fairly cleanly, even in a minor plant - with the latest technology and scrubbers. Same with waste paper - better to burn it for the energy than go through an energy expensive recycling process (and transportation).

I am not really familiar with the N. American situation where newsprint and LWC demand is stable or falling. And none of this applies to the escalating paper demand in Asia. But in Europe, the unilateral recycling directives of the EU go against common sense. All the new fibre comes from Finland and Sweden. It goes down south and is expensively recycled about 5 times in large urban centres and ridiculously expensively elsewhere. But new fibre is needed continuously.

It would make more sense to burn the paper locally, but technologically correctly. Sweden and Finland can supply all the new fibre that Europe needs sustainably (from the forest POV).

A couple of million annual tonnes of papermaking capacity have come. or are coming offline in Finland. There'll probably be more.

You can't be me, I'm taken