If you’ve visited the central Arkansas town of Beebe lately, you may have wondered if folks moving there were hauling their own trash cans from places like Toledo, Ohio, or Baton Rouge. The answer is no.
“There was no conspiracy, and they weren’t stolen,” declared a friendly Wayne Rathbun, managing partner of Green Environmental Services of Arkansas.
Yes, many of Beebe’s roughly 8,130 residents use trash cans of various colors from other cities because of a problem back in March 2017 when the town’s contractor, Green Environmental, ordered new cans. It turns out the supplier was backed up and Beebe was going to have to wait, or it could go ahead and use about 3,000 brand new cans that other cities had never claimed.
Rathbun said today that the company covered the other other towns’ names with stickers and also added color-coded stickers for what day trash would be picked up in various parts of the community. Over the years, some of the stickers have worn off, he said.
The company is gradually replacing the trash cans with new ones “little by little,” he said.
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