Chester group protests Philly trash burning

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Philadelphia sending and incinerating its trash in the city of Chester has been an ongoing issue and tonight a group from Chester is saying enough is enough. It is ruining their quality of life and impacting their health still.

[00:00:13]>> Our Don Timmeny with more on their efforts to put a stop to it. Stop trashing our air.

[00:00:19]A small but determined crowd peacefully protesting outside Mayor Cherelle Parker's town hall budget meeting in Southwest Philadelphia. The group demanding Philly stop burning its trash in Chester. Eleanor Brown lives two blocks from the incinerator. Every night I hear the noise from the incinerator. I smell the smoke.

[00:00:45]Brown says the incineration is causing her serious lung issues and has claimed the lives of loved ones and friends. I have 14 homes on my block and in those 14 homes 12 people have died of cancer. Philadelphia sends roughly 40% of its trash to Re-World incinerator. It is the nation's largest burning 3,500 tons of trash and industrial waste daily in a predominantly black city challenged with poverty. Zulene Mayfield is the chairperson for Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living or CIRCLE.

[00:01:24]There are carcinogens that come out of there. Arsenic, lead, dioxins, mercury, uh uh uh cadmium.

[00:01:32]Particulate matter. These are all known cancer causing agents and right now we have environmental genocide that is happening in our community.

[00:01:41]This 23-year-old lives in Philadelphia but feels strongly about putting an end to this. I mean the air is the same air.

[00:01:48]You can't put a box around the air. It comes to Philly same as, you know, it's it's concentrated in Chester and then it all just blows wherever it blows. You You control it and so we're all impacted by that. Circle is pushing for passage of the Stop Trashing Our Air Act, first proposed in 2021. The measure would stop Philadelphia from incinerating its trash in Chester or anywhere and move to a landfill process. It It would behoove everybody if we stopped burning our trash and landfill it and then reduce waste. We need to reduce waste. There's plenty of programs that are happening.

[00:02:21]There's composting expanding, recycling We're not going to go away unless we die from cancer. But until then, we will always stand up for our community and stand up for the children here.

[00:02:33]Philadelphia's waste disposal contract with Covanta ends June 30th. Circle says Philadelphia City Council tabled a vote on the Stop Trashing Our Air bill at an April meeting, but it is still hopeful Council will pass it. Dawn Timmeney, Fox 29 News.