This paper explores how national culture and environmental awareness affect the recovery and utilization of recovered paper on country level. We extent models of previous studies by including a wide array of “softer” country level factors, e.g. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and diffusion of ISO 14001 certificates. Our models are tested on panel data from 22 leading paperproducing countries in 1995-2008. Our empirical results further confirm the roles of geographical, demographic and essentially economic determinants but we are also able to empirically demonstrate that cultural characteristics and concern for the environment play a significant role.