The Delaware County Solid Waste Authority needs to be resurrected as the county figures out how to handle trash over the next 10 years, writes Kathleen E. Cary for the Daily Times.
“We’re going to create a new authority,” said Jim Warner, interim CEO of the Solid Waste Authority, speaking to Delaware County Council Feb. 16. “We have a long way to go.”
He pointed to absent Authority leadership and lackluster systems, including two trash transfer stations “in distress.”
About 530,000 tons of municipal waste ends up as ash annually at the Covanta trash-to-energy plant in Chester.
Of that, 130,000 tons go to the Chester plant. The rest goes to transfer stations in Marple and Chester County, where it is consolidated and then sent to Covanta.
Covanta’s residual ash goes to the Rolling Hills Landfill in Berks County.
That landfill will be full in 17 to 20 years. Plans to expand it add 10 to 20 years to that.
Zero Waste Associates is creating a 10-year Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan with strategies for trash disposal, including zero waste sustainability measures.
The county is recruiting a citizens advisory committee so community voices are heard in the planning process.
For more detail, read the Daily Times story on the planning process.
