Philadelphia trash: City Council to review Chester trash incinerator contract

City Council is set to review Philadelphia’s contract with a trash incinerator facility in Chester that became a campaign issue in the mayoral race.

At-large Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson, in the midst of her own reelection campaign, on Thursday introduced legislation for hearings on the city’s practice of sending more than 400,000 tons of garbage to the facility each year. Activists, residents, and elected officials from the city in Delaware County have raised concerns about pollution and environmental racism.

The legislation was passed, but no hearings have been scheduled yet.

The contract with the firm Covanta, which owns the incinerator, is ending this year, so “it is a good time to revisit and reimagine Philadelphia’s waste management practices,” Richardson said in a statement.

Council in 2019 voted to renew its contract with Covanta for four years, and several now-mayoral candidates — including Allan Domb, Helen Gym, and Cherelle Parker — voted in favor of that renewal.

But it was grocer and first-time candidate Jeff Brown who drew criticism earlier this month for comments he made during a debate about the city’s contract with the trash incinerator.

A Fox29 debate moderator asked Brown — whose campaign slogan is “pick up the damn trash” — whether he would change the city’s existing contracts with vendors that handle waste removal. The moderator said residents in Chester have expressed concerns about pollution and environmental racism.

Brown responded: “Chester is Chester. I’m worried about Philadelphians and how their lives are.”

The moderator asked: “So, you don’t care about Chester?”

“I do care, but I don’t work for them if I’m the mayor,” Brown responded. “I work for Philadelphia, and the trash has to go somewhere, and whoever gets it is going to be unhappy with it.”

» READ MORE: What is Philly’s role in Chester’s controversial incinerator?

The comment drew immediate rebukes from his rivals, including Parker, who said “that response is the same way you treat the Black and brown community” in Philadelphia. Chester is 72% Black, according to U.S. Census data. Both Covanta and environmental activists also criticized Brown for the comments.

The first iteration of the trash incinerator opened in Chester more than 30 years ago. Covanta, one of the country’s most prominent waste-to-energy companies, began operating the plant in 2005. It also operates facilities in Camden and Conshohocken, but the Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility in Chester is its largest.

The resolution introduced by Gilmore Richardson says the city’s contract requires that it send a “guaranteed annual quantity” of waste to the plant each year. That, she wrote, is “directly in conflict” with the city’s long-term goal of becoming “zero waste,” which means all waste is recycled or reused.