The City of Windsor is testing out a new piece of technology to keep the trails, alleys, and sidewalks of the downtown clean.
The city unveiled Monday a portable electric-powered Glutton Zen street cleaner to its fleet.
It's a compact, 100 per cent electric vacuum designed for sidewalks, pathways, paved and narrow alleyways that is easily pulled along by a city employee, who can use the machine to suck up trash and other items with a giant vacuum hose.
The Glutton Zen street cleaner was purchased from a company in England and cost $30,000.
"It's a brand new asset for us. It's not a replacement; we're not taking away from anything," he says. "This is a value add for us. While $30,000 might feel expensive in terms of street sweepers and sidewalk maintenance, it's not a very expensive thing. It's a good add for us to bring it in and get it moving right away."
The cleaner will be deployed as part of a yearlong pilot project, first focused on the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Area and then hopefully expanding the use into other BIAs across Windsor.
Leether says they're going to see how this works and if more could be added to the fleet in the future.
"The City of Hamilton currently employs four throughout their downtown core and their BIAs, so that's probably a fair comparison," he says. "So we'll build our data and track it and listen to the residents and see how far we go with it, and from there we'll prepare an update for the council next fall and make a recommendation then."
A City of Windsor employee uses a Glutton Zen street cleaner, a new piece of technology being used by the city as part of a pilot project to keep downtown Windsor alleys and sidewalks clean. @AM800CKLW pic.twitter.com/JQNJdM1Qm8
— Rusty Thomson (@RustyThomson800) July 7, 2025
Leether says the machine is very quiet.
"The environment in mind, it's a fully electric machine. They're readily in use in Europe. We bought the piece of equipment from Europe, Great Britain specifically," he says. "I think Councillor Agostino made the point of saying they were all over the Paris Olympics. I remember seeing them on TV and thinking, 'what a cool little machine.'"
During the news conference, it was revealed that some city staff have already given the machine the nickname 'Rosie the robot.'