By Jack Tomczuk<\/p>\n
Philadelphia is moving closer to having to cut ties with a Chester incinerator that currently burns about 30% of the city\u2019s trash.<\/p>\n
City Council advanced a proposed law Monday that would prohibit Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s administration from hiring companies to incinerate waste. The legislation is nearing a final vote as the city prepares to negotiate new deals with contractors to dispose municipal trash.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now is our chance to chart a healthier, cleaner and greener path,\u201d Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, the bill\u2019s author, said during a hearing.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers voted the bill out of committee, defying a request from the Parker administration to delay a preliminary decision.<\/p>\n
Current trash contracts and costs<\/p>\n
Under the current contract, City Hall pays WM, previously known as Waste Management, and Reworld, formerly Covanta, more than $50 million a year to haul garbage from transfer stations after trash compactors pick it up curbside.<\/p>\n
WM dumps around 70% of the trash at a pair of Bucks County landfills, while Reworld takes the rest to the Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility<\/a>, the company\u2019s incinerator in Chester that burns waste for energy, city officials testified.<\/p>\n A 2018 contract with both firms expires in June, at the conclusion of the fiscal year. The city generally signs 4-year deals with three additional single-year options, according to representatives from the Parker administration.<\/p>\n Eliminating incineration could result in a 12% cost increase, equivalent to about $6.5 million annually, as regional landfills begin hitting capacity, said Philadelphia Sanitation Commissioner Crystal Jacobs Shipman.<\/p>\n Shipman and Carlton Williams, Parker\u2019s clean and green director, asked Council to hold the legislation in committee until companies submit applications for the waste contract. The city is planning to conduct its own analysis of disposal methods as part of that process, Williams added.<\/p>\n He noted that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s hierarchy of waste<\/a> considers waste-to-energy facilities, such as the Chester plant,\u00a0 more sustainable than landfills, though that finding is under review.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration applauds the bill\u2019s efforts to improve air quality and environmental justice concerns for the residents of Chester,\u201d Williams said. \u201cHowever, there is a need for more objective data to support the claims of this bill in its entirety.\u201d<\/p>\n He expressed hope that the city would receive proposals for more innovative solutions, such as an anaerobic digestion system, which breaks down natural waste to convert it into biogas, fertilizer and other products.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need another study to tell us what we already know to be true, to give the city an excuse to kick the can down the road for another seven years,\u201d Gauthier remarked earlier in the hearing.<\/p>\n “Our community is sick”\u00a0<\/p>\n The Reworld facility, which opened nearly 35 years ago, is the largest incinerator in the nation, Delaware County officials testified. It processes 1.2 million tons of trash a year and produces enough energy to power 51,000 homes, according to the company.<\/p>\n About a third of the trash burned there is shipped from Philadelphia, with the remainder primarily coming from Delaware County and New York City.<\/p>\n Proponents of the ban cite the plant as a textbook example of environmental racism. Chester\u2019s population of about 33,000 is 71% Black; more than 30% of residents fall under the federal poverty line, and they have a high rate of asthma and other health problems.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically, our community is sick,\u201d said Zulene Mayfield, founder of Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living<\/a>, a group that has advocated against the incinerator. \u201cOur children have asthma, and we are burying members of our community, burying them every day.\u201d<\/p>\n