Municipalities are always weighing cost against environmental concerns and quite often, cost wins out at great expense to the environment. Residents of New York City will remember the summer of 2002 when the Bloomberg administration ceased recycling glass and plastic, citing budgetary concerns. It was cheaper for the city to dump tons of reusable refuse into landfills than to continue its recycling program. After a year of no plastic recycling and two years of no glass, the city determined the savings were negligible and resumed recycling both.

Winter should be winding down, and if you're in the Northeast, you might even think that's Spring up ahead. But don't get too comfortable. Its still cold and snowy in much of the U.S. and, if the forecasts are correct, there's more to come.