Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Sydney Chisholm

Waste collection

Switch to organics collection spurs new City of Kamloops garbage collection practice

Dec 1, 2022 | 5:02 PM

KAMLOOPS — You might see two trucks pass by your house on garbage day in the new year, but no, you’re not seeing double.

The city is switching from a single pass system, where one truck collects both garbage and recycling to a dual pass – where one truck will take garbage, followed by a second truck that takes recycling.

According to Glen Farrow, city streets and environmental services manager, the single pass system meant challenges for the city including truck breakdowns and contamination between garbage and recycling streams.

“Over time and as we move toward a full community collection of organics, we are shifting our collection model to two trucks passing most homes,” Farrow told CFJC News. “There will be a truck for garbage and a truck for recycling.”

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Farrow said as organic pick-up is rolled out citywide in the new year, one of two trucks will take organic waste each week, while the other will alternate between garbage and recycling.

“The collection schedules will be adjusting, will be shifting, will be changing,” he said. “Each truck will be carrying a similar amount of weight but that weight will be collected across close to 1,000 homes rather than the current 500 homes.”

Farrow said, the new model will use a very similar amount of manpower and equipment but will reduce the travel distance for each truck.

“Right now, the garbage and recycling facility are not adjacent to one another. They are at the complete opposite ends of our community, so now if you’re only collecting recycling, you’re not making that additional 15-kilometre trip to Mission Flats Landfill,” Farrow said.

According to the city, the two-truck system has been in trial stage for the last few months and is ready to roll out community-wide in the new year. The split-body single-pass trucks will still be used in some more rural areas of the city, indefinitely.