PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia City Council committee advanced a bill on Monday to ban the burning of the city’s trash, despite a plea from city officials to wait until there’s a more comprehensive plan for dealing with the waste it collects.
The bill’s sponsor, Jaime Gauthier, said the city’s trash has contributed to poor health in Chester, where it’s burned in the ReWorld Waste to Energy incinerator.
“Air does not stop at the county line, so it’s no surprise that Philly suffers too. One in five of our young people has asthma, earning us the unfortunate designation as the 2025 asthma capital,” Gauthier said.
Chester officials, residents, and advocates testified about the harm caused by emissions from the incinerator, including elevated cancer rates.
“It may seem a decision to support (this bill) is solely a vote to protect the residents, especially the children of Chester, but when we send our trash to Chester for incineration, we also put our own residents at risk,” said former Philadelphia health commissioner Cheryl Bettigole, now at Penn. “By passing this bill and saying no to incineration and the toxic air pollutants it produces, council can move our city and our neighbors toward a healthier future.”
Carlton Williams, the director of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s Clean and Green initiatives, said the administration applauds the bill’s effort to improve air quality and environmental justice for Chester, but noted the alternative — landfilling — also has problems.
“Landfills take up significant land, can release harmful methane gas, and have the risk of groundwater contamination.”
Sanitation Commissioner Crystal Shipman said disposing of the 600,000 tons of trash the city generates each year is a complex process, and shifting to all landfills would cost the city about $6 million. She also cited an EPA study that found waste-to-energy more sustainable than landfills.
Williams said the city will soon put out a request for bids for new disposal contracts and will analyze each bid for its environmental impact. He said the city hopes the bids include new technology such as anaerobic digestion, which diverts organic material from the waste stream and turns it into nutrient-rich compost. He asked Gauthier to hold the bill until the bids are in, but she went ahead with the committee vote. It will now go to the full council, though a source said Gauthier won’t bring it to the floor for a vote until the city has completed the bid process.