The City of Kamloops will have two separate trucks collecting garbage and recycling, starting in January.

Sanitation Supervisor, Graham Lamont, says it will replace the old system that saw one truck collect both garbage and recycling, using a divider to separate the two loads.

Speaking on NL Newsday, he says there are several benefits, including less chance of contamination as well as less wear and tear on the trucks.

What we are seeing is we’re putting on about 200 km a day just from where we store our trucks to the start of our routes. We do our route, we break off midway to the landfill, we come back and finish up our routes out to Valleyview, back out to Mission Flats,” he said.

“So by just having one truck go one direction and one truck go in the other direction, we’re able to save up to about 40 km per day per truck.”

He says under the old system, the trucks would have to go to the landfill twice a day and to the recycling facility on Kelly Douglas Road once.

While both garbage and recycling will still be collected on the same day, Lamont says it may not happen at the same time.

Residents, he says, will be able to watch for decals on the truck so they know what material is being collected by the vehicle that is going past their house.