BEIJING - China will promote recycling paper and reducing its use in order to save resources and protect the environment, according to the country's new five-year plan for its paper industry.

The authorities should urge people to cut back on using high-quality paper such as sheets with high whiteness, said the country's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) for the Paper Industry, released last week.

Current paper product standards should be revised to encourage the production of energy-saving and emission-reducing paper, and promote the substitution of paper packaging for alternatives, said the plan.

The plan requires government purchasers to give priority to paper products mixed with waste paper, and to reduce paper use by switching to digital systems.

Meanwhile, it called for news publishing and packaging industries to take effective measures to reduce paper consumption.

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of paper and paperboard products. The country has made plans to eliminate at least 10 million tonnes of outdated papermaking capacity before 2015 by encouraging corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Meanwhile, the country aims to cut chemical oxygen demand, which accounts for around 47 percent of the sector's total emissions, by 10 to 12 percent this year. It will also cut the combined emissions of nitrogen and ammonia by 10 percent this year.