Philadelphia could extend its controversial trash incineration contract amid criticism

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Philadelphia could extend its controversial contract with a Delaware County trash incinerator for an additional year. The move comes as some members of City Council are pushing to end the city’s practice of burning trash, and instead send it to landfills.

Carlton Williams, director of Philadelphia’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, told council members during a budget hearing Tuesday that the city may extend its current waste disposal contracts by one year, if the city is not able to sign new contracts before the current ones expire at the end of June.

The delay would be caused by the process of evaluating and approving the next contracts, Williams said. First, city consultants need to complete a study comparing the environmental impacts of landfilling and incineration, he said. The city’s Sanitation Department also needs to evaluate and negotiate bids from waste disposal companies vying for the next contracts, and Council must approve them. Williams said the city hopes to complete this process by early this summer, but if the city needs more time to review bids, it will look to extend its current contracts.

“We want to make sure that we get it right,” Williams said. “We certainly don’t want to rush it.”

The city can extend its current seven-year contracts with WM, formerly Waste Management, and Reworld by up to one year beyond June 30 without Council approval, said Ava Schwemler, a spokesperson for the city Law Department. Schwemler said the city has not yet asked WM and Reworld for this extension.

The city’s possible extension comes as Council considers a bill sponsored by Councilmember Jamie Gauthier that would ban the city from signing new deals for waste incineration. Currently, about 40% of the city’s garbage is burned at incinerators, most of it at Reworld’s incinerator in Chester.

Environmental and health advocates say air pollution from this incinerator degrades Chester’s air quality and puts residents’ health at risk. The facility releases pollutants known to make conditions like asthma worse.

Meanwhile, Reworld has ramped up its lobbying of Council and Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration. The company, formerly known as Covanta, was among the biggest spenders on lobbying in the city during the last quarter of 2025, spending $45,000 on lobbying council members and the Sanitation Department. The company’s political action committee also donated $3,700 to Parker’s campaign in December, although she will not face reelection until next year.

Reworld did not respond to a request for comment. The company has said its incinerators are sustainable alternatives to landfills that produce electricity from trash while avoiding landfill emissions of planet-warming gases.

Debating the environmental impacts of incineration vs. landfilling

Williams and Sanitation Commissioner Crystal Jacobs Shipman said during a hearing on Gauthier’s bill last fall that more data was needed to compare the impacts of landfilling and incineration. They warned that narrowing the city’s waste disposal options to just landfilling would likely lead to higher costs for taxpayers, increase pollution from trucks carrying trash and fill nearby landfills faster.

In January, Gauthier put her bill on hold at the last minute as it was set to come to a vote, saying other council members had asked for “more time” to consider it.

During the budget hearing Tuesday, Gauthier asked Williams about an analysis commissioned by Delaware County that found the “human health costs” of incineration to be 23 times higher than that of landfilling.

Williams said he and his staff have reviewed this analysis and “don’t disagree” with its emissions estimates, but said elements of the study “could be looked at as subjective.” He said other studies contradict Delaware County’s findings, and Philadelphia needs to rely on its own contractors for an objective analysis.

“We’re here to ask this council to give us the opportunity to evaluate it through the [request for proposals] process,” he said.

Gauthier said the city has had plenty of time to consider which disposal option is best. She noted that Council’s ​​Committee on the Environment held a hearing to evaluate the environmental justice impacts of the city’s waste management practices and alternatives to the Reworld contract in 2023.

“The time is fast approaching for us to make a decision that is the right decision for both Philadelphia and Chester,” Gauthier said.