Chester trash opponents take fight to Philly mayor who said, ‘I hear you’
May 27, 2026
By Drew Amorosi
SPIRIT correspondent
A group of Chester protesters greeted Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker in front of a scheduled town hall meeting in the city’s Kingsessing neighborhood last Thursday night, May 21.
The group, calling on the city to stop sending its trash to neighboring Chester for incineration, was prevented from entering Victory Christian Center, 5220 Whitby Ave., during the event because organizers and security officials alleged a lack of seating inside the venue.
The protesters support a proposed city ordinance that would prevent Philadelphia from contracting with companies that use incineration to dispose of municipal waste.
Although not admitted inside Victory, Parker acknowledged the protesters and their cause during the town hall meeting.
“We have folks from our neighboring county in Chester who are concerned about a contract that focuses on how we incinerate the city of Philadelphia’s trash,” Parker said. “I want you to know I see you. I want you to know I hear you. I want you to know that you have a right to be here – this is Philadelphia, this is the birthplace. And you have a right to express your perspective to share what you believe and what your opinion is, and we should hear each other.”
The measure, called the Stop Trashing Our Air Act, is sponsored by Third District Councilperson Jamie Guthier and has twice been held from a final vote because it lacks majority support on City Council.
A source with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified told The SPIRT that the Act’s inability to move through City Council is more a lack of buyin within the Council and that the Parker administration would support the ordinance if passed.
Gautier’s latest hold came on April 9 before Council could vote on the measure. Two days before during Council’s budget hearing, Office of Clean and Green Initiatives Director Carlton Williams said, based on Council’s feedback about a lack of time to review winning waste disposal contract bids, the Parker administration would extend the city’s expiring contracts for one year and new winning bids would then be sent to City Council and allow both it and the public more time to review before they receive final approval.
Williams said that, for the first time, a study on the environmental impact of a potential city contract would be conducted and factored into the decisionmaking process.
Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL) is the group advocating to ban trash burning in Chester because of its proven negative impact on residents’ health, including abnormally high rates of asthma and cancer among young adults. CRCQL has participated in multiple demonstrations to raise public awareness of the issue that has generated local media attention, including a “die-in” protest in front of Philadelphia City Hall on April 7.
The group is led by former Chester resident Zulene Mayfield, who believes Parker is actively obstructing the proposed ordinance by now proposing a revised procurement process that will delay a final decision on new garbage disposal contracts and add new studies to the process. “They’re gonna study it until we all die,” Mayfield said when asked about the administration’s response to the latest hold on the ordinance. “So go ahead and y’all study it and debate it while we die,” she added, while holding up a flyer in memory of her deceased cousin, Xytalia “Jay” Robinson, who passed away on March 10 at the age of 40 after battling cancer.
“But what you allow to happen to us you do also to yourself,” she said, directing her response to Philadelphia’s political leaders. “This is a fight that anybody who has a lung needs to be involved in. Nobody is immune from this.”
Mayfield’s reference to “anybody who has a lung” stems from a new report issued by the American Lung Association which graded Philadelphia region air quality as “F.” The analysis also ranked the metro area comprising Philadelphia, Reading, and Camden, N.J., as 17th worst in the nation for annual exposure to fine particulate matter in the air.
Philadelphia County was one of the 20 counties nationwide that received a failing grade for all three air pollution measurements in the study, which included ozone, daily particulate matter, and annual particulate matter exposure.
The trash incinerator on the Chester waterfront is the nation’s largest and has been in operation since 1991. The facility was originally built and owned by Westinghouse, which sold it to Covantya – now rebranded as Reworld – in 2005.
When asked about the proposed ordinance, a Reworld spokesperson produced a statement.
“Reworld is committed to operating its Chester facility safely, transparently, and in compliance with all applicable state and federal environmental regulations,” the statement read. It would go on to say that the facility operates below federal emission guidelines and maintains “advanced air pollution control systems,” the company asserted.
“While framed as an environmental measure, the Stop Trashing Our Air Act would actually increase pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and truck traffic by forcing more waste into distant landfills, moving Philadelphia backward rather than forward on its environmental and climate goals. Decisions about Philadelphia’s waste policy should be grounded in transparent, verifiable data and credible science, not fear or misinformation,” the statement concluded.
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