Maybe recycling isn’t as great as it first appears. For example, I’d not considered that white recycled paper was once paper that was not white and ready for reuse. How did it become white again? Was it bleached? What is the ecological impact of making the paper white again in terms of chemicals and energy used? How many more times can this recycled paper be recycled?
In the end, it seems, recycled materials will end up in landfill. It will just take longer to get there, as materials are recycled until they are no longer useful.
I’m fairly sure that paper can be recycled indefinitely, as any paper product can be broken down into fibrous mulch, then reformed- I’ve done it myself.
However, if you aren’t using white or light-coloured mulch, then it would presumably require some form of bleaching process to make it useable. If a prudent method of doing this can’t be established, then perhaps it would be better to use new, but unbleached, paper from sustainable forests for writing paper, and use recycled paper for other things such as packaging?