Answering common questions about our Stop Trashing Our Air Act, see our new 1-pagers!

• Impacts on Philly Jobs and Unions
• Will Ending Philly’s Use of Incineration Cost More?
• Where Will the Waste Go if We Don’t Burn It??

For more details, see our 4-page:

• Overview and Frequently Asked Questions
• Demographics of communities impacted by Philly’s trash showing that incineration impacts far more people, especially lower-income people of color.
• Incineration vs. Landfill life cycle assessment study showing incineration is far more harmful for climate, health, and environment
• Support letters from Chester City Mayor Stefan Roots, Delaware County Council Chair Dr. Monica Taylor, Delaware County Health Department Director Lora Werner, MPH, and Chester City Health Commissioner Dr. Kristin Motley
  • Plus the support letter from 32 groups supporting the bill!

…and if you haven’t written to Philadelphia City Council to support the bill before the vote on Thursday, January 22, 2026, click on our action alert here!

The Stop Trashing Our Air Act was written by Mike Ewall at Energy Justice Network in 2021 and the campaign for it is led by Energy Justice Network, Delco Environmental Justice, and our 30+ partners who have signed on in support of the campaign.

Check out the bill itself here and the powerful testimonies from the Environmental Committee hearing on 11/17/2025 and the city council meeting on 1/22/2026.

In a long, and packed, hearing before Philadelphia City Council’s Environment Committee on Nov. 17, 2025, our Stop Trashing Our Air Act passed out of committee with a powerful 5-1 vote! Thank you to committeemembers Gauthier, Bass, Ahmad, O’Rourke, and Harrity for your support!

The bill, authored in 2021 by Philadelphia resident, Mike Ewall of Energy Justice Network, was introduced this year by City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, chair of the Environment Committee. Following a recent toxic tour of Chester that we led for councilmembers and their staff, councilmembers were quite concerned about the health and environmental racism consequences of where our trash goes.

We’re optimistic about passing this bill in the full city council and welcome your support! Here are ways you can help…

1) Email City Council in support of the bill. We made that super quick and easy here: http://www.phillyzerowaste.org/action

2) Sign your group on in support of the effort (if you represent an organization): https://energyjustice.net/signon

3) Invite us to present to your organization. Contact Mike Ewall at 215-436-9511 or mike@energyjustice.net

4) Learn more in our 4-page Frequently Asked Questions or by checking out any of these documents:

• Our Powerpoint slides
• Demographics of communities where Philly trash goes (hint: incinerators impact far more people, and lower-income people of color)
• Energy Justice Network’s response to the Sanitation Department’s solid waste Request for Information issued in summer 2025. This 35-pager covers how to not keep contracting to burn trash, as well as detailing how incineration is far worse than landfilling, plus Zero Waste solutions.

We’ve been busy and the file linked here will catch you up on all that’s been happening!

First, a 4-page FAQ about Philadelphia’s use of Waste Incineration (TL:DR, It makes NO sense!)

https://phillyzerowaste.org/ContractFAQ.pdf

Next, here is a view of the demographics around waste facilities that Philly uses. (TL:DR, These facilities are preying on poor and BIPOC communities. It’s disgusting!)

https://phillyzerowaste.org/demographics.pdf

Next, we share our response to the Request for Information (RFI) put out by the City of Philadelphia. (TL:DR, We know how to help make Philly awesome on waste management!)

https://phillyzerowaste.org/2025RFI-EJN.pdf

And finally, our latest PowerPoint presentation if you want to GO DEEP and GET TRASHY diving into waste management, environmental racism, the health impacts of incineration, and so much MORE!

https://phillyzerowaste.org/powerpoint2025.pdf

If you represent an organization, please sign our sign-on letter here!

Our plan is…

• Stop Philly from burning our trash and recycling
• Get Philly’s Sanitation Department to stop trashing recycling
• Reduce our waste with real Zero Waste strategies

36% of Philly’s trash is burned, mostly in the nearby City of Chester, PA – a famous case of environmental racism. The Reworld (Covanta) trash incinerator in Chester is the largest in the U.S. burns up to 3,500 tons of trash and industrial waste per day. It is the #1 industrial air polluter in the 7-county Philly area, contributing to our high asthma and cancer rates.

Help us end the use of incineration, which is more than twice as harmful for climate, health and environment than landfilling, and disproportionately harms people of color, especially those in the City of Chester.

How does this help?
The Philadelphia Streets Department admitted in late 2020 that they were ordering sanitation workers to mix recycling with the trash when they’re short-staffed. They claim that this practice stopped in the Spring of 2021, and now deny that they are ordering sanitation workers to trash recycling. Collecting data, including photos and videos, helps prove this is still happening across the city. Sanitation workers have admitted that they are still sometimes being ordered to trash recycling.

Does documenting this put sanitation workers’ jobs at risk?
Nope! Sanitation Workers are following directions handed down by management. The Streets Department has publicly stated that workers jobs would not be at risk by documenting this, and is asking for reports on where recycling isn’t being collected properly.