Philly’s trash is Chester’s air pollution
Philadelphia sends one-third of its trash to an incinerator in Chester deemed by researchers to be one of the dirtiest in the nation.
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The smokestack of the Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility looms over a residential street in Chester. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
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About one-third of Philadelphia’s garbage goes to a facility in Chester, Pa. where the waste is burned and converted into energy. But that incinerator also pollutes the air Chester residents breathe and researchers say it’s one of the dirtiest in the U.S. Catalina Jaramillo, a reporter with WHYY’s PlanPhilly, explains why the city continues to send its trash there — and why many incinerators like this one are located in low-income communities of color.
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