Philly City Council returns with dueling plans for the city’s trash | Council roundup
Also this week in Council: One member floated a new structure for the law department and another wants to ban new storage facilities from his district.
Philadelphia City Council members are considering dueling proposals over how the city eliminates its garbage, with one lawmaker leading an effort to immediately block the city from shipping its garbage to a trash incinerator and another taking a longer-term approach.
Councilmember Mark Squilla on Thursday introduced legislation authorizing Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration to, within three years, develop a plan to dramatically reduce the city’s reliance on both trash incineration and landfills over the next 20 years.
Squilla’s proposal, which he drafted with input from Parker’s administration, is something of an alternative for lawmakers to consider as his colleague, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, has for months pushed for a more aggressive approach to stop the city from incinerating trash this year.
Both lawmakers hosted news conferences this week alongside their allies to rally support for their cause, part of a long list of events Council members hosted as the legislative body returned Thursday for its first meeting of the fall session.
» READ MORE: After a messy budget fight, Philly City Council turns to its unfinished business: Trash, taxes, and a new arena
The first meeting after the summer break typically has a jovial, first-day-of-school feel. But the mood briefly shifted Thursday when City Hall was evacuated and Council abruptly adjourned after a suspicious package was found on the floor where Council was meeting.
» READ MORE: Philly City Hall was evacuated for a bomb squad investigation, but no explosive device was found
Police cleared the package, and Council resumed its business Thursday afternoon.
Here’s what else happened this week:
What was this week’s highlight?
Incinerator issue heats up: Gauthier has for months sought to pass legislation that would ban the city from continuing its long-term practice of sending about a third of its garbage to a trash incinerator in Chester, about 15 miles south of the city. She argues that incineration is bad for the environment and harms Chester residents’ health.
Parker’s administration opposed the legislation, called the Stop Trashing Our Air Act, and Gauthier in the spring failed to gain enough support for it in Council.
Now, Gauthier is trying to block the Parker administration from renewing its contract with Reworld, the incineration facility. The administration needs Council approval to enter into a new four-year contract with the firm.
Gauthier has several members on her side, including three fellow progressive lawmakers, as well as Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who is the Democratic majority whip.
Squilla’s proposal in some ways offers members an off-ramp. His bill calls for a “circular waste” system that includes new techniques for waste disposal, such as composting and “anaerobic digestion,” a process that breaks down organic waste.
Managing Director Carlton Williams said Wednesday during a news conference with Squilla that the city is looking to build out an anaerobic digestion system within four years.
Squilla said that while the administration is already working toward a more modern waste disposal system, passing a law would “codify what we had as plans and resolutions before.”
Gauthier said that she supports Squilla’s goal of moving toward a more sustainable system, but that his legislation “is a plan to create a longer-range plan.”
“It in no way changes the decision in front of Council,” she said. “We can move away from this practice right now.”
What else happened this week?
Severing the law department: The city law department serves as legal counsel both for the mayor’s administration and Council, a dynamic that can sometimes cause friction when the city’s elected officials disagree.
Council on Thursday approved a resolution by Thomas to hold a hearing “to consider the separation of the [Law] department’s functions between the administration and City Council.”
The department is led by City Solicitor Monique Galloway, who Parker appointed to the role in July.
Thomas has clashed with Parker’s administration, and he said he became interested in looking at the department’s structure due to concerns that Council was not receiving independent legal advice on some issues.
He pointed to the Philadelphia School District’s controversial facilities plan, which involves the closure of 17 school buildings and was adopted by the school board in April over the objections of many Council members.
And he said recent legal proceedings around the city’s business income and receipts tax were “part of the motivation” to hold a hearing on the law department.
In 2025, after a Massachusetts company sued the city seeking to overturn a popular tax break program that primarily helped small businesses, the law department said it had determined the lawsuit was likely to succeed. The Parker administration eventually settled the case and convinced Council to eliminate the tax break. Some Council members at the time complained that the city did not defend the tax break more vigorously.
» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration defends move to eliminate tax break that helps small businesses
The department already silos off some of the work it does on behalf of Council from the rest of the administration, such as when it drafts bills proposed by lawmakers. Council also may hire outside legal counsel, but must pay for those services out of its own budget.
A law department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Storage wars: Councilmember Mike Driscoll introduced legislation on Thursday that would ban new self-storage facilities from his district in lower Northeast Philadelphia.
The storage industry boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, as consumer spending shifted from services to goods, many families struggled to afford larger homes, and low interest rates juiced development.
Northeast Philadelphia saw a particularly large boom in self-storage building because of its rich supply of properties zoned for industrial development. Driscoll said that advocates in the Tacony neighborhood felt their community had become oversaturated.
“They want more affordable housing and [self-storage units] are taking valuable sites for that,” Driscoll said.
Self-storage facilities are gold mines for developers. They suffer little wear and tear, have few utility costs, and labor costs are low after construction.
According to online industry search portal StorageCafe, Philadelphia has 89 self-storage sites containing more than seven million square feet of space. About a third of that has been built since 2019.
Other municipalities have moved to limit the spread of self-storage facilities in recent years. New York City banned them from industrial areas to preserve jobs, and Denver blocked them from properties close to light rail lines. Providence, Rhode Island in 2023 banned new facilities from the city altogether.
Driscoll said that he may further limit his legislation to the Tacony neighborhood.
“I don’t want to hurt another part of my district that maybe wants these things,” he said.
Embracing affordability: Multiple members of City Council said this week that tackling affordability is their primary objective this fall, including Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke, whose office published a lengthy report outlining dozens of proposals aimed at reducing costs.
Some may be more realistic short-term goals than others.
The report, which was drafted by a Cost of Living Task Force made up of community advocates and industry leaders, recommended the city explore everything from opening municipal grocery stores to creating a local Medicaid supplement program.
It also recommends restructuring existing housing programs to more aggressively target the poorest residents, and establishing a Transit Access Fund that would fund free or reduced-fare transit passes for low-income households.
O’Rourke, a member of the progressive Working Families Party, plans to hold a committee hearing on the task force report this fall.
Council President Kenyatta Johnson will also introduce an affordability measure this fall. He plans to bring forward legislation that would establish a permanent Food and Nutrition Security Coordination Office, he said in a statement.
Quote of the week
No bones about it: That was Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr., who called for hearings on the planned closure of the Academy of Natural Sciences.
