The Reworld Delaware Valley facility, one of the largest waste-to-energy incinerators in the country, burns roughly 180,000 tons of Philadelphia's municipal waste each year — about 30% of the city's total — according to testimony city officials gave at a 2025 City Council committee hearing. Another 430,000 tons go to landfills. Philadelphia paid Reworld $13.2 million in fiscal year 2026, according to the Managing Director's Office.

The debate pits the low cost and logistical ease of incineration against mounting concerns about air pollution and environmental justice in Chester, a city of about 35,000 people that already hosts a concentration of industrial facilities along its waterfront.

"Why should this community of 35,000 people have to carry the burden of at least two million people's trash?" said Zulene Mayfield, who chairs Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living, a group that has fought the incinerator since before it opened in 1992. Mayfield once lived across the street from the facility and said she eventually moved because of it.

Democratic Chester Mayor Stefan Roots said the incinerator's size and location are inappropriate for a city of Chester's scale. "We don't want it here either," Roots said. "An incinerator that size in a city this small, so close to a population center shouldn't happen."

Roots acknowledged that Chester also sends its own trash to the Reworld facility, though through a Delaware County contract rather than a city one. He estimated Chester accounts for less than 2% of the waste burned there.

Last year, Delaware County adopted a Zero Waste Plan aimed at reducing waste generation and eventually eliminating the county's reliance on incineration. Roots urged Philadelphia leaders to consider the burden their waste places on Chester. "You've already protected your people, Philadelphia. You eliminated incineration in the city of Philadelphia years ago," he said. "Kind of look back and have some sympathy for us. We don't want incineration here either."

The environmental concerns are not abstract. Jennifer Saxe, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Delaware, said incineration dramatically reduces the volume of garbage but generates pollutants in the process. "The waste comes into the facility, the volume of waste is reduced, but in that process, you are also generating pollutants, which mostly end up in the air," Saxe said.

Those pollutants include particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, which can irritate airways and contribute to respiratory problems. Reworld's facility performance report says recent average annual emissions were below federal standards for those pollutants. But the company's data also estimates the Chester facility accounts for 16% of Delaware County's nitrogen oxide emissions.

Reworld says the facility is heavily regulated, continuously monitored and has invested in emissions-reduction technology. In a statement, a company spokesperson said the facility "operates up to 99% below federal emission guidelines" and that an independent health risk assessment found risks to human health well below EPA thresholds. The spokesperson also said the facility contributes "well under 1% of countywide fine particulate emissions."

"Reworld is proud to be part of the Chester community and has a longstanding commitment to being a good community partner," the spokesperson said.

State records show the facility has faced 14 enforcement matters since 2014, including air-permit violations, a radiation-inspection violation and penalties involving emissions-monitoring data, with penalties totaling more than $241,000. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said the facility is currently in compliance, and an October 2026 inspection found no violations.

John Ryder, a deputy commissioner with the Pennsylvania DEP, said the department's job is to ensure the facility follows state environmental laws. Asked whether Chester residents could be assured the state was doing everything it could, Ryder said he had "a very, very high level of confidence" in answering: "Absolutely."

An internal city analysis obtained by investigators compared waste-to-energy incineration with landfilling and concluded neither method was environmentally "superior." It also warned that "waste-to-energy incineration generates hazardous air pollutants" and noted concerns about incinerators operating in "historically overburdened communities."

Philadelphia officials have said waste-disposal proposals are evaluated on more than cost, including environmental impacts and effects on surrounding neighborhoods. Under the proposed new contracts, Reworld would charge $47 per ton in 2027, making it one of the least expensive options listed, second only to a facility in Conestoga in Lancaster County.

Roots argued there are costs not captured by the per-ton price. "You can't build a condo next to a trash incinerator, even though it's on the most beautiful waterfront around," he said. "It's just not going to happen. No, it's not fair."

Saxe noted that ending incineration would not eliminate the environmental consequences of Philadelphia's trash. "It still needs to be taken somewhere," she said. "And there are going to be people that live near the composting facility, perhaps. There are still similar concerns, like with transportation and kind of local impact with any option."

Philadelphia City Council is expected to hold a hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 18, to review the proposed waste contracts. For Chester residents who have fought the incinerator for decades, the decision is about more than where Philadelphia's garbage goes after it leaves the curb. It is about who ultimately bears the burden of taking it.

"You have a living, thriving community here that's struggling," Mayfield said. "Struggling."