Philly’s trash is burned in Chester. Advocates say the health impacts don’t stay there

As Philadelphia considers ending incineration tied to Chester pollution, environmental justice advocates point to health impacts in the region.

“Do you want to be breathing in what you’re throwing in the trash can every day?” is a question posed by Jendaiya Hill, community organizer with Clean Air Council.     

Philadelphia produces nearly 1.3 million tons of trash each year, with roughly one-third sent to be burned at incinerators operated by Reworld, formerly known as Covanta, in Chester. For years, residents have pushed back against the plant, which is the nation’s largest trash incinerator and the region’s top industrial air polluter.

But advocates emphasize the impacts are not confined to Chester. “We are (breathing the air). It’s already happening,” said Hill.

“We’re not seeing Philadelphia residents breathing better than Chester residents because the air doesn’t know city limits,” she added.

Clean Air Council monitors across the region reflect that reality. Data from dozens of air monitors in both Delaware County and Philadelphia show little difference in air quality between the two areas, underscoring how pollution from the Reworld facility contributes to regional air quality.

“You don’t have to be an expert to look at it and see that nobody should be living right next to this. It’s scary looking. Smoke and pollution are coming out of these facilities, and it’s directly next to people’s neighborhoods. Literally, children are playing, and there are piles of ashes,” Hill said.

Legislation to Clean Chester – and Philadelphia’s – Air

The “Stop Trashing Our Air Act,” introduced by Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, would prohibit the city from contracting with companies that burn waste. Philadelphia’s current contract with Reworld is set to expire at the end of the fiscal year (on June 30th) amid growing pressure to shift away from incineration and toward landfilling. The expiration of Philadelphia’s waste contract offers a rare window of opportunity to reduce Chester’s disproportionate pollution burden.

The bill’s path forward has been anything but smooth. Introduced in September 2025, it advanced out of the City Council’s Environment Committee in November and was expected to face a full council vote earlier this year. The vote was ultimately pulled after Reworld spent $45,000 lobbying City Council members and Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration in the final months of 2025, raising questions about whether the bill had enough support.

Despite the setback, public pressure has continued to build. On April 7, members of Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL) staged a “die-in” protest outside Philadelphia City Hall, lying on the ground and coughing to symbolize the health impacts of incinerator pollution as officials met inside to discuss the city’s waste future.

Advocates note a common misconception is that landfilling as an alternative waste management solution poses an equivalent harm because it releases greenhouse gases and other pollutants. They clarify that this framing, however, is misleading. Even when trash is burned, the resulting ash is still sent to landfills.

“It’s not incineration versus landfilling,” said Russell Zerbo, an advocate with Clean Air Council. “It’s incineration and landfilling versus just landfilling.”

Health concerns beyond Chester

A 2025 Philadelphia City Council weekly report states that the Chester incinerator burns 3,500 tons of trash and industrial waste daily, or more than 1.2 million tons annually. This process releases a harmful mix of pollutants into the air, including nitrogen oxides, lead, mercury, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds, all of which are linked to respiratory and cardiovascular illness according to the EPA.

“All of these pollutants are very bad for human health and also for fish, wildlife, and the environment,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

“Mercury, for instance, has irreversible toxic effects on developing fetuses and young children. And one problem is that it tends to move into the atmosphere—it can travel thousands of miles. There’s no wall around Chester that keeps the air there.”

Local health data highlights these concerns. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, children in Chester experience asthma rates significantly higher than the national average, and Philadelphia was coined one of the top Asthma capitals by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

“As a child, and I’m not exaggerating, I didn’t know anybody with asthma. I didn’t know what asthma was until I was an adult. Never saw a child with an inhaler. The only thing that has differed on our Chester waterfront since the 90s is the addition of the incinerator. And now the health disparities are upside down,” said Chester Mayor Stefan Roots.

Environmental advocates say the persistence of facilities like the Chester incinerator reflects gaps in regulation. The facility continues to operate within existing legal limits.

“Even if they never had any violations, they have a permit to pollute,” Carluccio said. “They’re allowed to release a certain amount of pollution every day under their state permit.”

She added that environmental justice policies in Pennsylvania do not prevent polluting facilities from operating. Instead, she said the plant’s future depends largely on whether cities like Philadelphia continue sending waste there.

“If they’re not making money, if they don’t have enough trash coming in, that’s going to impact whether they continue to operate.”

Chester, a predominantly Black, low-income city, has long borne a disproportionate share of the region’s polluting industries, a pattern advocates describe as environmental injustice. The concentration of polluting infrastructure in the city is driven not only by policy gaps but by deeper economic inequities that limit communities’ ability to refuse harmful development.

“Lead polluters like this go to the most unempowered communities – communities that are poor, communities that are usually minority- because they don’t have a lot of political capital and they don’t have a lot of money,” said Roots.

“You would never want a community to be in a position where polluting industries are their only economic option,” said Gwen Ottinger, a professor of environmental and technological studies at Drexel University who researches environmental justice. “Our current system allows those with more resources to offload environmental harms onto more vulnerable communities.”

Reworld did not respond to a request for comment. The company has previously asserted that its incinerators are a sustainable alternative to landfills, producing energy while maintaining emissions within state regulatory limits.

The city’s decision will not only shape how waste is managed, but who continues to bear the burden of it. But the Mayor isn’t the sole decision maker – City Council has to review and approve multi-year contracts per the Home Rule Charter.

One workaround for this tight deadline? The Parker Administration could extend the existing waste contracts to give themselves tie to review bids for new contracts.

Cover Photo: Waste to Energy plant in Chester, SamHolt6, Wikipedia