Philadelphia proposes renewing waste disposal contracts despite health concerns – Metro Philadelphia 7/21/2026
By Steve Jeffries
Philadelphia’s Department of Sanitation recently announced its intent to continue using a mix of landfilling and incineration to dispose of the city’s trash, despite longstanding concerns from environmental groups and local residents about health impacts of trash incineration.
Currently, around 30% of Philadelphia’s trash is sent to an incinerator run by ReWorld Sustainable Solutions in Chester, just south of Philadelphia. The Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility, the largest trash incinerator in the U.S., burns 3,500 tons of trash a day.
Two other companies, Republic Services of Philadelphia and Waste Management of Pennsylvania, Inc., were also awarded contracts each lasting 4 years, with an option to extend each contract by three additional years.
Proposals from multiple applicants were evaluated by a committee made up of representatives from the Departments of Sanitation, Health, Office of Sustainability, and Office of Clean and Green.
“We believe the RFP Process will lead to a contract that is financially sound, environmentally safe (according to Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection standards) and includes the best option for the city to explore alternative methods for disposal,” Carlton Williams, Director of the city’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, said in a press briefing on July 10.
Elizabeth Lankenau, the Office of Sustainability’s director, added that “There is not a clear consensus of the relative health and environmental impacts between incinerating and landfilling.”
Trash incineration and health impacts
According to a life cycle study of the ReWorld incinerator in Chester compared to landfilling commissioned by Delaware County’s Office of Sustainability in 2021, incinerating trash is 23% worse for climate change impacts and 23-times worse for local health and environmental impacts.
In Chester and surrounding neighborhoods, data shows that pollution and industry emissions have been linked to disproportionately high levels of disease, including a pediatric asthma rate four times the national average, elevated incidents of cancer, and among the highest infant mortality rates in Pennsylvania.
A city with a population that is 72% Black, the concentration of heavy industries has been cited by many advocates as a textbook case of environmental racism, a term used to describe toxic or polluting industries that disproportionately impact minority communities.
Organizations like Chester Residents Concerned with Quality Living (CRCQL) and its leader Zulene Mayfield have protested against the incinerator since operations began in 1992. Dr. Nolan Fontaine is the youth coordinator of CHOICES, the youth component of CRCQL.
“We’ve been fighting this for 35 years with our founder Ms. Zulene at our helm,” said Fontaine. “And the incinerator is not the only behemoth we’ve been fighting. Not just in Chester or Delaware County, but now in Southeast Pennsylvania.”
While the pollution disproportionately affects Chester, Philadelphia’s proximity to the incinerator and heavy industries can lead to city residents experiencing elevated risks of disease as well, health experts say. Children experience more than triple the rate of asthma in the city than the national average.
City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said that recent powerful storms and the dangerous air quality levels from wildfires are timely reminders of the impacts that climate change has on Philadelphians.
“People all over the city are talking about the thick smoke in the air,” Gauthier said. “The smell is coming from wildfires over 1000 miles away in another country. If we can be impacted by wildfires in another country, I think people have to recognize that we’re also impacted by burning our trash 20 minutes down the road.”
Zero-waste goals
City officials indicated a desire to launch pilot programs and explore alternative waste disposal methods to move Philadelphia towards a zero-waste system. Crystal Jacobs Shipman, Department of Sanitation Commissioner, said in a statement that the city intends to invest in practices that divert waste to more sustainable practices to meet its zero-waste goals.
“The city will continue to explore alternative methods for disposal including organics processing, composting, textiles recovery, recycling, and anaerobic digestion,” said Jacobs. “We will utilize what’s at our disposal presently by awarding a contract to the respondents of the Best Value RFP (Request for Proposals).”
Last year, Gauthier proposed the “Stop Trashing Our Air” act that would ban the city from contracting with waste disposal companies that incinerate trash. According to Gauthier, she held the bill because council members wanted to see the RFP process play out, assuming the administration and advisory committee would address concerns of Chester’s residents.
“Not only did they not work in good faith with the council,” said Gauthier, “but they ignored the cries of the community. They picked the same dirty polluting contract and they’re pushing the council to back up their harmful decisions. So I think it’s actually a good time to revisit the bill.”
The Sanitation Department’s proposed solid waste contracts will need to be voted on by City Council to take effect. Council is currently on recess until the fall.
Read the original article here.
