He calls himself a trash man but he is more than that. Neal Slater is a PR guy, a recycle educator, and a trash traffic cop. Along with his one-eyed dog Goldie, Neal can be found every Saturday morning at the Fair Park drop-off recycle center next to the Little Rock Zoo. He and Goldie work for the Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District and this busy drop-off center is one of several around Pulaski County.
Here you can pitch-in what didn’t make it from curbside pickups. Plastic bottles, glass, aluminum and steel cans go in one dumpster. Paper and cardboard are slung in the other. And with a steady stream coming in all morning it adds up to a whole lot.
Slater predicts that 700 tons of trash that would have ended up in landfills comes through his containers.
At Fair Park you can only get rid of the every day stuff. The Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District has set-up other drop-off centers for electronics and household chemicals but no paint, pesticides, or used motor oil can be accepted. To learn more and get locations and schedules, go to regionalrecycling.org. Or you can drop by the Fair Park center and ask Neal. Be careful though, he talks a lot of trash.
