{"id":238736,"date":"2025-09-19T10:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T10:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/238736\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T10:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T10:57:14","slug":"philadelphia-trash-incineration-could-end-under-city-council-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/238736\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia trash incineration could end under City Council bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have a question about Philly\u2019s neighborhoods or the systems that shape them? PlanPhilly reporters want to hear from you! Ask us a question or send us a story idea you think we should cover.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphia could stop sending its trash to be burned in Chester, under a bill introduced to City Council Thursday.\n<\/p>\n

The bill would ban the city from signing new waste disposal contracts with companies that burn trash to produce energy, such as Reworld, formerly Covanta, which runs a waste-to-energy incinerator in Chester in Delaware County.\n<\/p>\n

Zulene Mayfield, chairperson of the advocacy group Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living, which wants to see the Reworld facility shut down, said the city has received \u201ceverybody else\u2019s garbage\u201d for decades.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that we can divert away from that incinerator will improve our lives and the air quality for everybody,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Around 40% of Philadelphia\u2019s trash is incinerated, according to the city\u2019s latest waste management plan<\/a>, which reported data from 2018. The rest is buried in landfills.\n<\/p>\n

Of all the waste incineration facilities the city utilizes, the Reworld facility in Chester accepts the most.\n<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s contract with Reworld expires at the end of June 2026, according to the office of Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who sponsored the legislation. The city\u2019s contract with Waste Management, which manages the city\u2019s waste with both landfills and incinerators, expires at the same time.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither disposal method is perfect,\u201d Gauthier said. \u201cLandfilling is not perfect, but trash incineration has a greater impact not only on the environment, but on the people who live around trash incinerators. I think that\u2019s something that we have to be cognizant of.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Reworld paints its waste incinerators as a sustainable alternative to landfills.\n<\/p>\n

The Chester facility produces enough electricity to power around 51,000 homes each year<\/a>, according to the company. Andrew Bowyer, a contracted spokesperson for Reworld, said the facility also helps avoid the planet-warming methane emissions that come from landfills<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

But the Chester incinerator releases fine particulate matter, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides \u2014 pollutants known to exacerbate respiratory conditions, such as asthma and cardiovascular issues. Bowyer said the facility\u2019s emissions are \u201cbelow federal and state limits,\u201d although it has been cited for environmental violations<\/a> in recent years.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur children and our community, we just literally cannot breathe,\u201d Mayfield said.\n<\/p>\n

To Gauthier, banning trash incineration contracts would \u201cend [Philly\u2019s] role in perpetuating environmental racism in Chester.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Over 70% of Chester\u2019s residents are Black. More than 1 in 4 Chester residents lives in poverty, more than in Philadelphia.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing cleaner and greener<\/a> can\u2019t just be thought about as only within [Philadelphia\u2019s] borders,\u201d Gauthier said. \u201cIt cannot come at the expense of a city who is more vulnerable than we are.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, we\u2019re breathing the same air,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have a question about Philly\u2019s neighborhoods or the systems that shape them? PlanPhilly reporters want to hear from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":238737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[127844,5229,1448,2830,1311,10325,12771,27029,127845,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,49740],"class_list":{"0":"post-238736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-jamie-gauthier","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-city-council","14":"tag-planphilly","15":"tag-trash","16":"tag-trash-incineration","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-whyy-news-climate-desk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115230608238725756","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}