Mayor Parker wants to renew a contract to burn Philadelphia’s trash in Chester. Several City Council members plan to reject it – 9/17/26 WHYY
Five Council members oppose a proposed contract with Reworld, as the Parker administration says its plan will save taxpayers millions.
Several members of Philadelphia City Council plan to reject a city waste disposal contract with Reworld, a company that burns trash in the city of Chester and several other places in Pennsylvania.
The contract is among three that Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration has proposed awarding to companies to dispose of the city’s curbside trash over the next four to seven years. The other contracts would go to Republic and WM.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, sponsor of a bill that would ban the city from signing new waste incineration contracts, said sending Philadelphia’s trash to be burned in Chester amounts to environmental racism.
“Mayor Parker is asking City Council to renew our contract with a trash incinerator that turns our waste into toxic air that fuels asthma and toxic ash that causes cancer,” Gauthier said during a press conference Thursday. “Not on our watch.”
The city’s current waste disposal contracts, with WM and Reworld, expire at the end of the year. The city extended these contracts for six months past their original expiration in late June.
City Sanitation Commissioner Crystal Jacobs Shipman said in July that the city considered cost, disposal capacity, operational capability and environmental impact when evaluating companies’ bids. Elizabeth Lankenau, director of the city’s Office of Sustainability, said at the time that her team found no “clear consensus” that incineration is worse overall for health and the environment than landfilling, or vice versa.
Shipman said Wednesday the city estimates that the proposed contracts with WM, Republic and Reworld will save taxpayers roughly $7 million in savings for trash disposal and roughly $2 million in savings for recycling in the first year.
“We are looking at significant savings,” she said.
In a written statement, Reworld spokesperson Jason Hahn said the company’s Chester facility operates below federal pollution limits. He said a health risk assessment commissioned by the company shows it poses no health risks above thresholds established by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Evaluating waste disposal options must consider all impacts, including the methane and other uncontrolled air emissions, groundwater protection challenges, and transportation-related emissions that come with landfilling,” Hahn said. “Reworld remains committed to operating all its facilities in a manner that safeguards human health and the environment.”
The contracts will require support from nine of the 17 members of Council in order to go into effect. Councilmembers Kendra Brooks, Rue Landau, Isaiah Thomas and Nicolas O’Rourke also oppose the Reworld contract.
Six people spoke against burning the city’s trash during the public comment portion of Thursday’s council meeting.
“We need to do better right now for our children and prioritize health over big corporations profiting,” said Kate Rojas, a resident of Northeast Philadelphia.
Parker’s administration supports a bill sponsored by Councilmember Mark Squilla that would require the city to draft a plan over the course of the next contracts to divert 60% of its waste from landfilling and incineration. The bill would then direct the city to consider 20-year contracts that could include alternatives such as composting and anaerobic digestion, which uses bacteria to process organic waste such as food and sewage and produces gas that can be burned for energy.
Chester Mayor Stephen Roots said while he supports a long-term plan for waste diversion, Philadelphia needs to stop sending its trash to be burnt in Chester now.
“The citizens of my city have been suffering with health disparities,” Roots said. “And my city has suffered just because economic development will not be as great as it could be with an incinerator sitting on our very valuable waterfront.”
Read the original article here: https://whyy.org/articles/burning-philadelphia-trash-chester-contract/
