City Council recently voted to bring litter-vaccuming across Toronto back in-house to public workers which is a victory for good green jobs, lower costs, and better environmental service.
Litter vacuum vehicles drive Toronto streets and sidewalks sucking up debris and litter - this not only makes the city cleaner, but it prevents pollution from entering (or blocking) stormsewers and the environment. For many years, this service has been contracted out to private companies.
A June 2025 staff report outlined the benefits of having this work performed by the city’s own workforce, including lower costs. As the staff report notes, the in-house workforce is more flexible and can be redeployed as needed in a way that contracts can’t. For example, to respond to big storms or events, or to change key routes without lengthy negotiation or additional costs. Further, in-house services are more directly accountable, and can be aligned with other city priorities. An example would be having electric vehicles make up a percentage of Toronto’s new litter vacuum, and this percentage can increase with time to be consistent with Toronto’s green fleet strategy.
TEA has been highlighting the problem with private contracts for years - the difficulty in providing the needed monitoring and oversight, the need for better enforcement, and the difficulty of adapting and changing services. Importantly, private contractors make a profit at the expense of the workers doing hard, important work.
Having flexibility and the ability to adapt is even more relevant now considering external pressures and changes from the City’s own review and updates to climate and waste strategies.
This is just the start of the City reviewing the benefits of in-house collection. A July staff report also noted that bringing curbside residential waste collection west of Yonge back in-house to public workers would save the City millions. We’ll be watching for the future report in the coming months!
For more information:
TEA's letter to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee
The Agenda History for Item - 2025.IE23.1 and Item - 2025.IE23.3