[Click on the city/county name for a copy of the contract.]
- “Put or pay” clause guarantees that the city give Covanta 258,694 tons/year to burn or pay anyway.
- Contract is 4 years with three 1-year renewal options, starting 7/1/2019 and running through 6/30/2026 if all renewals are used.
- Opposition:
- 5/9/2019 Letter from 40 groups including CRCQL and Energy Justice Network opposing Philadelphia waste incineration contracts
- 5/2/2019 Letter from American Sustainable Business Council opposing Philadelphia waste incineration contracts
- All 11 members of the public who testified at the Philadelphia City Council hearing opposed the contracts. City Council adopted them, anyway.
- Support:
- 5/31/2019 Letter from Mayor Kirkland asking for Philly to sent waste to be burned in Chester.
- Transcript of 6/5/2019 Philadelphia City Council hearing on waste contracts, including the Philadelphia Streets Department statement that Chester Environmental Partnership (which is funded by Covanta) also wrote a letter to invite Philly trash burning in Chester (see p. 134).
- Runs from 5/1/2017 through 4/30/2022
- “Put or pay” clause guarantees that the county burn 300,000 tons/year or pay anyway. Between 2015-2019, Delaware County sent an average of 357,246 tons of waste per year to Covanta. If the county were to reduce its waste by any more than 16%, the county would be financially penalized under the current contract.
- 20-30 year contract, signed in 2013, for 800,000 tons/year of Manhattan, New York City trash by train from the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station to two Covanta incinerators, Covanta Niagara and Covanta Delaware Valley.
Ocean City, MD
- Current Covanta contract runs from 6/17/2012 through 12/31/2021, burning Ocean City’s trash and recycling (they don’t recycle). See the 2012 contract and 2015 amendment.
- 2022-2026 contract, approved illegally on 8/2/2021 in a 7-0 vote of Ocean City Council, pretending that it’s a contract “extension” and bypassing the Town Code’s requirement for competitive bidding. The contract would continue the burning of Ocean City’s recyclables and trash for a term of two years plus three 1-year renewal options, at a cost of $88/ton in 2022 going up to $97.14/ton in 2026.