Amazon Basics Multi-purpose Copy Printer Paper, A4 80 gsm, 2500 Count (Pack of 5), White

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Plantation blue gum grown in western Victoria is bought by Nippon Paper Group – the owner of Opal – and exported. Opal has known for years that paper demand is declining and that state forests have a range of species facing extinction.” It’s a false dichotomy of jobs versus environment, a culture war that the company is stoking because it doesn’t want to take responsibility for something it hasn’t planned for,” says Bronya Lipski, a lawyer who grew up in the Latrobe Valley and now works as policy and advocacy manager at Environment Victoria. A hardwood grower, John Woodley, says plantations have been “competing directly with government agencies for market share”. Plantation farmers say the state undercuts plantations by handing VicForests and customers like Opal a free primary resource – 1.8m hectares (4.5m acres) of native forest.

Sarah Rees, a conservationist who served on the government’s forest industry taskforce and the forest stewardship council, says it could lead to “a house of cards collapse”.

Out of paper: the last roll of white copy paper produced at the Maryvale mill in December. Photograph: Olivias Poppa Chris Taylor, a forestry researcher at the Australian National University, says plantation timber “can replace VicForests shortfalls multiple times over”.

The Maryvale paper mill is the latest in a long line of employers in the Latrobe Valley to close or downsize. Photograph: Chris Taylor Opal said it “has been unable to source viable alternative wood supplies to replace the VicForests shortfall. Opal has been considering alternative wood supplies … but concluded that alternative procurement is not feasible and has decided to discontinue the graphic paper business.” Opal says the court rulings have left the M5 without the wood pulp needed to produce paper. But critics of the company say that does not tell the full picture, which is that the market for copy paper has been in decline. Reflex commands 80% of Australia’s white copy paper market but consumption has halved in the past decade, with further decline predicted. The digital transformation of workplaces and universities slowed consumption, and Reflex’s use of what is known as “high conservation value” native timber resulted in it losing its Forest Stewardship Council accreditation, prompting thousands of businesses to sign an “ ethical paper pledge” to boycott it. Mill workers believe Opal “isn’t interested in sourcing timber from anywhere else”, Henry says. “They’re using VicForests as an excuse for something that wasn’t making a profit.”When carrots are dangled and nothing’s done, people are waiting for the government to end uncertainty before putting trees in the ground,” McEvoy says.