The imagery in this news release caught my eye: "the amount of waste glass diverted from landfills could form a two-lane glass highway that extends 1.3 times around the world."

The news release came from Owens Corning, which produces "Pink" insulation and announced that it has boosted to 40 percent (an increase of five percent) the amount of "certified" recycled glass used in its insulation. It also says that the 5 percent increase maintains the company's lead in using the most recycled materials in insulation.

Another "factoid" from the company's release --manufacturing fiberglass with recycled glass requires significantly less energy -- made the release even more interesting. (Also interesting, but completely unrelated to the environment were two additional discoveries from the Owens Corning website: the company became the first to successfully trademark a color -- in this case PINK -- in 1987. Also one of my favorite giggle-worthy cartoon characters -- the Pink Panther -- became the corporate mascot in 1980.)

But what interests me the most about this news is that it points once again to the tremendous opportunity for recycling. Because of the use of recycled glass in its insulation, Owens Corning says that it is one of the largest users of recycled glass in the world and that it is having trouble finding enough to use.

To continue to help the market find additional sources of recycled glass, Owens Corning is leading initiatives with regional recyclers and processors to invest in technologies that will reduce the amount of glass sent to landfills, either because no local recycling programs exist or due to technical limitations in recycling different types and colors of glass. One such program involves Strategic Materials Inc., a Texas-based processor of scrap glass collected from a diverse range of sources including new curbside recycling programs. Once construction is completed, the glass the company will recycle at plants in Texas and Georgia will keep approximately 12,500 tons of glass per month from going to a landfill, and be reused in products including Owens Corning insulation.

That quote reminded me of a Newsweek article from early October -- Saving the World for a Latte -- that describes a program run by RecycleBank that is very much, as the authors wrote, to "a frequent-flier program for recyclers." The article continues:

Perhaps it's a commentary on the woes of Wall Street, but investors are seeing gold in garbage. With rising demand from markets like China and India, prices for scrap material like aluminum and paper have soared, which makes the economics of recycling more compelling than ever. That's why venture capitalists dumped a record $161 million into recycling firms last year, up from just $17 million in 2001, according to Cleantech Group, a green-investing consultant. And RecycleBank is one of the hottest plays, attracting $40 million from backers like Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, former American Express CEO James Robinson III and Coca-Cola.

Recycling has long been one of my major bugaboos. Every morning I watch as the tens of thousands of commuters at Penn Station toss newspapers into the trash (there's a lack of recycling bins throughout the station). And in the evenings, I watch those same commuters dump newspapers, bottles and cans into the garbage on the station platforms (where no recycling bins exist).

And I wonder: just how stupid can we be? And how long will it be before companies like Owens Corning and RecycleBank can save us from our lazy selves?