Philadelphia bill would ban city from contracting with Reworld incinerator
A bill introduced in Philadelphia City Council Sept. 18 would prohibit the city from contracting with companies that incinerate its trash and recyclables. Currently about one-third of Philadelphia’s waste is sent to the Reworld (formerly Covanta) incinerator in Chester. Most of Delaware County’s municipal waste is also burned in the incinerator.
The Philadelphia bill was introduced by Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier. There is no indication of whether it will prevail or when it might be taken up by Council.
“I’m introducing the Stop Trashing Our Air Act to end the city of Philadelphia’s role in perpetuating environmental racism through trash incineration,” Gauthier said in a news release. “The city’s work to build a safer, cleaner, and greener Philly shouldn’t come at the cost of making our neighbors sicker, dirtier, and less safe. That’s not brotherly love. Everyone deserves to breathe clean, trash-free air.”
The bll is a triumph for Chester Residents Concerned with Quality Living (CRCQL) and Chester Mayor Stefan Roots who have long advocated for shutting down the aging Reworld incinerator, the largest trash-to-steam incinerator in the country.
It is also seen as a repudiation of a statement by grocery store mogul Jeff Brown who ran for Philadelphia mayor in 2023. When asked about Chester’s air pollution problems allegedly caused in part by the Reworld incinerator’s burning of Philadelphia trash, Brown responded, “Chester is Chester,” meaning Chester’s problems don’t concern Philadelpia.
CRCQL President Zulene Mayfield has long advocated for the closure of the incinderator to reduce air pollution in the heavily industrial city of Chester where as many as one-third of children under 18 suffer from asthma and where cancer rates are higher than those of the surrounding county and the state. Chester is about 70% black and is designated by the state as an environmental justice area.
“Everybody deserves air that is clean enough to sustain life. But for over 30 years, the nation’s largest incinerator has wreaked havoc on our community. No one has the right to take away our children’s breath. That’s why we fully support Councilmember Jamie Gauthier’s Stop Trashing Our Air Act,” Mayfield told Philadelphia City Council.
Chester Mayor Roots thanked Gauthier for visiting Chester to see the negative affects of burning Philadelphia’s trash at the Reworld incinerator firsthand.
“I urge Philadelphia City Council to be good neighbors, pass this bill without delay, and to join us in advancing regional solutions that put environmental justice and public health first. Chester stands ready to partner with Philadelphia to safeguard the health and welfare of our residents.”
A life cycle assessment conducted for Delaware County, which burns most of its municipal trash at Reworld, found that burning trash and landfilling the toxic ash it generates is 2.3 times more harmful to the environment and human health than sending unburned trash right to a landfill, according to the news release. The ash from Reworld’s incinerator is deposited in Delaware County’s landfill in Berks County.
The Delaware County Solid Waste Authority is currently considering a 10-year plan that initally called for phasing out incineration and using landfill exclusively, but it is not clear whether that plan will be adopted.
Reworld contends that incineration is a sustainable alternative to landfills and helps avoid the planet-warming methane emissions that typically come from landfills.
It burns 1.2 million tons of trash, generates energy from steam to power about 51,000 homes and recovers 46,800 tons of reusable metals each year, Reworld says.
The incinerator emits fine particulate matter, volatile organic compounds and nirogen oxide. Critics claim that even if those pollutants are below federal standards as Reworld claims, they combine with other pollutants along the Eddystone-Chester-Marcus Hook industrial corridor to create a toxic soup of pollution affecting the health of not just Chester but a wide range of communities surrounding it.
Jodine Mayberry for the Clearinghouse. Photo of Reworld incinerator by Jodine Mayberry
