Green Thought Thursday is a regular feature all about the baby steps we can take to protect our Mother Earth.

I can’t tell you how many Post-it Notes I’ve picked out of recycling bins. Hundreds, at least.  And no, it’s not because I have some weird obsession with them (though, we do love them at Clairemont). It’s because in the city of Raleigh and everywhere else, you cannot recycle them.

Really.

I think you’d be surprised to learn what you can and cannot recycle here in Raleigh — I know I  was. And that’s why I wanted to dedicate this Green Thought Thursday to listing those things out. According to the Raleigh Recycling Division, you can recycle the following:

• Newspapers and inserts
• White and colored paper (that’s not too bright)
• Open junk mail
• Old phone books
• Magazines and catalogs
• Paperboard, chipboard, SBS board and tubes (think cereal boxes, paper towel rolls, shipping tubes, etc.)
• Corrugated cardboard
• Glass bottles and containers
• Plastic items (coded No. 1-5 and No. 7)
• Plastic bottles with a neck (soda bottles, peanut butter jars, laundry detergant bottles)
• Gable-top cartons (milk cartons and the like)
• Juice boxes
• Aluminum foil and food trays (that are clean!)
• Plastic beverage rings
• Cans, of course!

Things you cannot recycle:

• Post-it Notes (and other paper with adhesive backing)
• Bold- or neon-colored paper
• Paper with staples
• Checkbooks or books
• Carbon paper
• Napkins, tissues or paper towels
• Plastic bags
• Boxes with wax coatings
• Aerosol cans
• Auto batteries
• Containers that once contained hazardous materials (like fertilizers, auto fluids, etc.)
• Egg cartons
• Non-food cans and non-food glass containers
• Pizza boxes
• Frozen food trays
• Containers made of thin, brittle plastic (these can really mess up the sorting process)

For a more complete list, visit the Raleigh Recyling Division’s website by clicking here. The site also does a great job of listing out alternative drop-off locations for your unwanted items so that they won’t end up in a landfill. A final thought from our friends there: “You can help recycling markets by buying products MADE from recycled materials. We have to close the loop, BUY RECYCLED!”

What are some of your favorite post-consumer recycled products? We sure do love our Staples recycled copy paper (and we don’t even mind paying a little extra for it)!