The city's trash contract bill, including the Chester incinerator, goes to the Environment Committee
Bill 260794 would authorize disposal deals with Waste Management, Republic Services and Reworld. It sat unreferred for three weeks.
The bill that would let the Parker administration sign new trash disposal contracts, including one with Reworld, the operator of the Chester incinerator, was referred Oct. 22 to Council's Committee on the Environment, according to Legistar. It had sat for three weeks after its Oct. 1 introduction while Council President Kenyatta Johnson decided where it would go, the Inquirer reported.
Where Philadelphia's garbage goes affects city costs and air quality downwind. About a third of the city's trash is burned at the Chester facility and the rest goes to landfills, the Inquirer reported. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier has spent more than a year trying to end the city's use of incineration.
What the bill says
Bill 260794 authorizes the sanitation and procurement commissioners to enter agreements for the collection, transfer and disposal of municipal solid waste. Its preamble says the city ran a request for proposals with advice from the mayor's Solid Waste Advisory Committee. It names the selected vendors: Waste Management of Pennsylvania, Republic Services of Pennsylvania, and ReWorld Sustainable Solutions. In July, the administration announced plans for new four-year contracts with those three companies, WHYY reported.
A companion, Bill 260793, would authorize contracts with several vendors to process and market recyclables. Both were introduced at the Oct. 1 session.
An unusual sponsorship
Legistar lists Johnson and Gauthier as the sponsors of Bill 260794. The Inquirer reported that Gauthier introduced it even though she opposes the Reworld piece. She did it to have a role in committee deliberations, and she plans to propose an amendment removing Reworld so all of the city's trash would go to landfills. She said the move gives her coalition "an opportunity to be at the table," according to the paper.
How we got here
- Gauthier's earlier bill, the Stop Trashing Our Air Act, would have barred city contractors from incinerating waste. It did not win enough support after the administration opposed it, and she never called it up for a final vote, the Inquirer reported. The administration argued it would limit competitive bidding, WHYY reported.
- In September, the Inquirer reported that Gauthier had support from three colleagues and from Majority Whip Isaiah Thomas in opposing a Reworld renewal.
- On Sept. 17, 1st District Councilmember Mark Squilla introduced a separate bill. It requires a plan, within three years, to sharply cut the city's reliance on both incinerators and landfills over 20 years, including composting and anaerobic digestion. Managing Director Carlton Williams said the city aims to build an anaerobic digester within four years, the Inquirer reported. Gauthier called Squilla's bill "a plan to create a longer-range plan."
- The city can extend its current contracts by up to a year without Council approval, WHYY reported. A long-term deal needs this authorizing ordinance.
What's next
The Committee on the Environment has to schedule a hearing on Bill 260794. That is where an amendment to drop Reworld would first be offered. If the committee reports the bill out, it needs two readings and a majority of the 17 members, nine votes, to pass. Watch the Legistar calendar for the hearing date.