How a trash incinerator is dividing leaders in Philadelphia and Chester – The Philadelphia Tribune 7/28/26
Marco Cerino TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Part One focused on Chester residents who have watched neighbors and loved ones suffer with breathing issues and higher rates of cancer allegedly from the operation of a trash incinerator in the city. It also looked at how economic hardships have persisted in the city, including loss of residents and lack of economic stimulus since the Reworld incinerator opened in 1992.
Chester Mayor Stefan Roots has pushed back against decades of tolerating the status quo by leadership and fought to get those using the Reworld trash incinerator to find alternatives. He convinced Delaware County to send less trash to Reworld. The county began its 10-year plan to phase out sending trash to the site in September 2025.
After success at the county level, Roots and Chester residents turned their attention to Philadelphia. The city’s municipal waste processing and disposal multi-year contracts came up in June. Under the current terms, Waste Management hauls about 60% of the city’s trash to landfills, while the rest goes to Reworld.
“I would not have approached Philadelphia had Delaware County not made that decision,” Roots told The Tribune last week. “The easy pushback from Philadelphia would have been, well what about your own county? Why should we make a move if your county commits to sending their trash there?”
Philadelphia sends about 40% of its trash to the site currently, about a third of the volume processed. The remainder comes from New York City and other municipalities in Delaware County.
The Philadelphia contract for waste removal expired in June and one City Council member has asked the mayor to stop sending the city’s trash to Chester. The city has said it has looked for new options while continuing to work with the incinerator.
Reworld operates the incinerator, the largest in the country, along the Delaware River, a parking lot away from soccer stadium Subaru Park and across the train tracks from residents.
The City Council tried to prevent the city from renewing the contract with the Stop Trashing Our Air Act.
City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents West and Southwest Philadelphia, introduced the Stop Trashing Our Air Act earlier this year that would have prevented the city from considering Reworld for another agreement. Roots and others from Chester came out to support the measure and convince the city to find an alternative.
At one point, Gauthier accused Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker of calling her colleagues to oppose the bill, claims the Tribune could not independently verify. Parker and her administration have said they opposed the bill because they thought it would have adversely affected the bidding process by removing one of the city’s two partners.
While the contracts have been announced, terms are not yet public. Currently the city pays $65 per ton to their current partners. Any new deal would start in January 2027 and require Council’s approval. Williams said his goal is to get Council a finalized version of the contracts by their return on Sep. 17.
Gauthier said that the administration promised in a hearing that it would not rush the process and “give Council enough time to see the contract, to understand what’s in it and to deliberate.”
Philadelphia awarded three contracts for municipal waste processing and disposal in July. Republic Services of Philadelphia will join Waste Management and Reworld in handling trash and recycling. Director of Clean and Green Carlton Williams told The Tribune on Thursday that terms are being finalized but a third partner likely means those numbers will change.
On Tuesday, Mayor Cherelle Parker announced that Williams had been promoted to the city’s managing director.
Five contractors submitted their bids to the city in March, according to an official timeline in a presentation shared with councilmembers and the press. Environmental impacts were one of the four main factors in the proposals The city announced the criteria to judge bids July 10 and the environmental impact assessment was 10% of the total score for the bids. In the assessment, waste-to-energy incineration received a -4 score for sustainability, while landfilling got a -5.
“Reversing the process from incinerator to landfills does not solve the issue of the overall environmental impact it had on either Chester or Philadelphia or in the surrounding region,” Williams said. “What we’re merely doing is trade-offs — we’re placing one problem over to the next. That’s why we don’t support that bill. We need environmental policy that has us moving beyond the two flawed disposal methods.”
Williams said the city is looking into anaerobic digesters to process trash, a solution they found while surveying New York. He credited the Stop Trashing Our Air Act with helping to influence the evaluation process. He also said he wants to see the city move away from relying on the Reworld incinerator, like Delaware County has pledged.
Chester residents expressed their disappointment that Parker campaigned on trying to defend their city from the polluting incinerator when she ran in 2023 and hasn’t delivered.
Jason Hahn, senior manager of communications at Reworld, said the site is “committed to operating its Chester facility safely, transparently and in compliance with all applicable state and federal environmental regulations. The facts are clear: the facility operates up to 99% below federal emission guidelines, verified through continuous emissions monitoring and stack testing.
“In addition, a human health risk assessment completed by an independent third-party, concluded that potential risks to human health are well below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s long-established risk thresholds,” he said.
Hahn also said Reworld “is proud to have served the Chester community for more than 20 years and remains committed to being a long-term partner in the city’s future, providing sustainable solutions while supporting environmental stewardship for years to come.”
Gauthier said she was “shocked and dismayed” that the administration awarded Reworld another contract. This time, it may not get automatic approval from Council, she said.
“Most of the time, the Council is going to honor the administration’s work when they select a contract partner,” Gauthier said. “It is rare that a contract would get voted down. You might hear Council members ask questions during those type of hearings. They might even want tweaks or certain things reflected in the contract.”
“It’s rare they would vote a contract down,” she continued. “I would argue that this is a time that we should.”
Read the original article here: https://www.phillytrib.com/news/local_news/how-a-trash-incinerator-is-dividing-leaders-in-philadelp%20hia-and-chester/article_bc8ddb8a-c15f-41d0-82f5-8b750d5689e1.html
