Tuesday, May 6 is the primary election for many legislative and judicial offices. The opportunity to vote in safe, legitimate elections is one we shouldn't take for granted.  After exercising your civic duty, you may need to rid yourself of a pile of campaign mail.  Remember that postcards, letters and other forms of campaign mail can be recycled in your blue cart.

Campaign signs that linger along roadsides for weeks after an election are as ugly as a gerrymandered political map, and much more obvious.  If you decide to clean up signs, consider recycling the metal stakes in the scrap metal box at the City of Raleigh Yard Waste Center.  Stakes can also be recycled in the scrap metal containers at all eleven Wake County Convenience Centers.

As for the signs themselves, they are not recyclable in your blue cart or at any of the City drop-off recycling centers.  Have you thought of a creative way to reuse corrugated plastic signs?  Share it with us.  Tweet your ideas to @RaleighGoGreen using #campaignsigns.

The City of Raleigh is pleased to join the U.S. Composting Council® in celebrating Compost Awareness Week this week, May 5-11. While you may not think of compost as something to celebrate, this incredible product has gained awareness in recent years for its positive impact on the environment and public health.

 The City of Raleigh Solid Waste Services Department supports the use and knowledge of compost through a variety of ways and throughout the year. Each of these opportunities will help you appreciate the theme of this year’s Compost Awareness Week: “Compost: the Solution to Sustainable Soil and Water.”

• Request a speaker. Call 919-996-6872 to schedule a free presentation for schools, churches or other groups.
• Learn on your own with this short video about composting in your backyard.
  
• Borrow a compost container to collect food waste at your next event. Call 919-996-6890 for details.
  

Read more about ways to celebrate Compost Awareness Week.

Welcome to another installment of Recycling Out & About, an occasional series in which we explore unusual recycling collection containers spotted around town.  Today's photo was taken at the Chick-Fil-A restaurant in Cameron Village.

According to the company's website, Chick-Fil-A offers foam cup recycling in 25 percent of its locations, including the Raleigh-Durham market, the Piedmont Triad and Charlotte. A short video depicts how the cups will be recycled into new products such as picture frames and clothes hangers.

Savvy chicken-sandwich eaters may have noticed that Chick-Fil-A's foam recycling program doesn't mention the fruit cups or boxes used for grilled chicken, although both are made from No. 6 plastic, also known as polystyrene. While Chick-Fil-A defends its decision to continue using foam cups because of their insulating properties, McDonald's has bowed to pressure from shareholders unhappy over polystyrene's contribution to marine pollution.  McDonald's has vowed to replace foam cups with paper ones for hot beverages at all 14,000 of its locations in the United State.

Only time will tell if Chick-Fil-A's example will spur other restaurant chains that use foam packaging to offer recycling to their customers.  In the meantime, foam cups are not recyclable in your City-provided blue cart or at any of the drop-off recycling centers.  We don't accept polystyrene in any form because of the lack of nearby markets. If you must use foam cups, please discard them in your garbage cart.