Owner of Chester trash incinerator spent $45K on lobbying in Philadelphia as City Council considers waste incineration ban
The sponsor of the proposed incineration ban pulled the bill from a vote at the last minute in January once it appeared to lack support.
The owner of Chester’s trash incinerator ramped up its spending on lobbying Philadelphia politicians last year as City Council weighed a bill that could jeopardize the company’s future city contracts.
City records show Reworld, formerly known as Covanta, spent $45,000 on lobbying City Council members and Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration in the final quarter of 2025. The company’s political action committee also donated $3,700 to Parker’s campaign in December. She will not face reelection until 2027.
“It really looks like it puts communities or everyday folks at a disadvantage,” said Zulene Mayfield, chairperson of the advocacy group Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living.
Mayfield, who used to live across the street from the facility and now lives in Delaware, wants Philadelphia to stop sending its trash to Chester. She sees it as a case of environmental racism and thinks Reworld’s pollution worsens asthma and other health conditions that plague Chester residents.
“Basically, big money buys politicians,” she said. “They buy what they want.”
Roughly 40% of Philadelphia’s trash is incinerated, most of it at Reworld’s Delaware County facility. Environmental justice advocates say the city should not be sending its waste to be burned in Chester, a majority-Black city where Reworld’s incinerator contributes to unhealthy air pollution.
The legislation City Council is considering would bar the city from signing waste disposal contracts with incineration companies like Reworld. Reworld’s current seven-year contract, worth tens of millions of dollars, expires this summer.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier introduced the Stop Trashing Our Air Act in September. The bill was voted out of committee in November, following a hearing in which members of Parker’s administration argued that more data is needed to compare the environmental impacts of landfilling and incineration, and that constraining the city’s waste disposal options would likely lead to higher costs for taxpayers, increase pollution from trucks transporting waste and fill up nearby landfills faster.
Council was set to vote on the act in January. During that meeting, Reworld employees and union officials testified that up to 120 jobs were at stake and said Reworld continuously monitors air emissions and operates below federal pollution limits.
But the bill never got to a vote. Gauthier put the legislation on hold at the last minute, saying other City Council members had asked for “more time” to consider the bill. A spokesperson for Gauthier declined to comment for this story.
Philip Hensley-Robin, director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, an organization that pushes for limits on money in politics, said so far, Reworld’s lobbying seems to be paying off.
“The bill was pulled from consideration, right?” he said. “And the Council hasn’t voted on it.”
Hensley-Robin sees Reworld’s activity as tipping the scale against residents who live near the facility and say their health is impacted by Philadelphia’s trash disposal.
“Folks in the city of Chester, they can’t spend $45,000 on lobbyists,” he said. “They can’t make thousands of dollars of contributions to candidates for political office, and our concern is that their voices aren’t adequately being heard in this discussion.”
A Reworld spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
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