Last week, I saw a sign on a Waste Management truck. The sign said the company had recycled enough paper in 2008 to save 41 million trees. Hey, I thought, that’s a lot of trees. What a great thing this is.

Then, I figured I’d check out paper recycling in general and this is what I found:

1. The American Forest and Paper Association reported that paper recovery had increased from 56 percent to 57.4 percent in 2008. The 57.4 percent averages 340 pounds for every man, woman and child in the U.S. The Association also reports that 87 percent of all Americans have access to roadside or pickup recycling programs.

2. The Bureau of International Recycling says that some half of all recovered paper comes from industry, mainly through converting waste like cuttings and unsold newspapers. More than one-third of all recovered paper comes from households.

3. According to the Bureau, 31 to 38 percent of paper goes to landfills. Paper products are the largest waste product in landfills.

4. TAPPI, a leading association that represents the pulp, paper, packaging and converting industries, says that Americans use some 700 pounds of paper products per person, per year.

5. TAPPI also says that 2.5 million trees are planted each year by the forest industry.

When I take those numbers, here’s what I come up with: each of us uses 700 pounds of paper a year, of which 340 pounds are recycled, even though 87 percent of us have access to roadside or drop-off recycling programs. Households contribute about 1/3 of all recovered paper. Industry does far better than we individual citizens, representing about half of all recovered paper. We – individuals, businesses, governments – continue to funnel 31 to 38 percent of the paper we use into landfills.

It’s easy to point the finger at “them.” I hear it all the time. “Someone” should do something about environmental problems. “They” should be more responsible. It’s time for “them” to be held accountable. What I don’t hear nearly as often is that “we” lag behind “them” in accepting responsibility for the impact “we” have on environmental problems.

For most of us, paper recycling is one of the easiest ways of being environmentally responsible. Computers enable us to reduce the amount of paper we gobble up. Online news sources minimize our purchase of newspapers and magazines (something that hurts the heart of someone like me, who loves the feel of a newspaper or magazine in my hands). Reduced packaging means we can buy products that use less paper. But, despite all that, households contribute only 38 percent of all recovered paper, even though paper recycling probably costs us the least in time and effort.

I’m not saying the paper industry deserves knighthood or that business can’t do better, but business is doing a lot better than we individuals in recycling paper products. With so much room for improvement, there’s no excuse for “us” not being a bigger part of the solution and a smaller part of the problem.