Hot Topics: January 2019

Hot Topics highlights eco-news from the past month worth another mention. Click through for links to the original stories.

Timeline: Plastic Reduction Guide for Restaurants and Eateries

Plastic waste is wreaking havoc on our waterways and plastic serving ware is not recyclable. This guide from the Product Stewardship Council has simple steps for restaurants and eateries to reduce their plastic use while helping the bottom line. It also includes success stories from several businesses.

New ComEd Solar Calculator Evaluates Your Rooftop Solar Potential

ComEd recently launched their free rooftop solar calculator. The tool will evaluate the potential benefits and costs of installing rooftop solar panels. It takes into account sun exposure, your electricity use, current incentives for solar power and comes up with an approximate payback period. Get a report for your home to start exploring rooftop solar. Check out more details on solar energy from ComEd including community solar here.

Wasting Less Food in k-12 Settings: Best Practices for Success Guide from NRDC

Food waste is a big problem for our planet and we can all be a part of the solution. Check out this handy list of strategies for success to reduce food waste at school. Learn how to get started or get ideas to re-energize your food waste reduction program. If you missed it, you can learn more about reducing food waste at school from these previous posts:

• Let’s Resolve to Feed Kids: Start a School Food Share
• Lunchroom Food Sharing Programs Curb Waste and Feed Kids
• New Law Encourages Schools to Donate Food

Timeline: How China has reshaped US recycling

If you’re curious to follow how China’s strict standards on importing recyclables has affected recycling globally, check out this timeline from WasteDive. You can see at a state-level how the China restrictions have impacted the U.S. state-by-state here.

What climate change will do, region by region

Check out this summary from Grist, based off the recently released National Climate Assessment. They read through the report to summarize how each region of the US will be impacted by climate change.