{"id":862156,"date":"2026-06-12T12:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/862156\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T12:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:17:19","slug":"emr-in-camden-residents-call-for-permanent-shutdown-of-scrap-metal-recycler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/862156\/","title":{"rendered":"EMR in Camden: Residents call for permanent shutdown of scrap metal recycler"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of the 10 people who spoke during the public comment section of Thursday\u2019s meeting about EMR, four called on the city to shut down the company\u2019s Camden facilities permanently and five others testified about the company\u2019s negative impact on the neighborhood or urged the city to regulate the company more stringently.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not enough to shut down EMR for a short time,\u201d said Roy Jones, a Camden resident and longtime environmental justice activist<\/a>. He said the company endangers the health of nearby residents with diesel exhaust and other air pollution.\n<\/p>\n

Dwane Williams, a resident of the Stockton neighborhood of East Camden, disagreed. He said with multiple industrial facilities in Waterfront South, \u201ctargeting EMR\u201d is not the solution to environmental issues in the neighborhood.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely don\u2019t believe the answer to this is shutting down EMR,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

Waterfront South resident Aliyia Jones said City Council\u2019s action Thursday was not cause for celebration, since residents have called for EMR to shut down after previous fires.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cToo little, too late,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

EMR employs 535 people across five facilities and its corporate headquarters in Camden, 191 of whom are city residents, according to the company. Last week, EMR employees rallied outside of Camden City Hall<\/a> to protest Mayor Victor Carstarphen\u2019s calls for state and federal government agencies to shut down the company\u2019s facility. Employees said that union jobs, particularly for people who\u2019ve been incarcerated, would be lost.\n<\/p>\n

In a letter to the mayor following his calls to close the scrap metal shredder, EMR USA CEO Joe Balzano said that \u201cbeing a good neighbor\u201d and operating safely is an \u201cessential priority\u201d for the company. Following the city\u2019s cease-operations order last week, Balzano told WHYY News that he hoped to meet with city officials to resolve the issue.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe value our place in the city of Camden and want to work for resolution, as opposed to in opposition of each other,\u201d Balzano said.\n<\/p>\n

City Councilmember Arthur Barclay, who represents the Waterfront South neighborhood and joined the calls for EMR\u2019s facility to be shut down late last month, said after Thursday\u2019s meeting that he would support permanent closure of EMR\u2019s facility, but did not specify how City Council could impose that.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to explore every option,\u201d Barclay said. \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s going to be the mayor and the administration\u2019s decision, but \u2026\u00a0 my one vote on council, I would love for them to permanently go.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of the 10 people who spoke during the public comment section of Thursday\u2019s meeting about EMR, four called…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":862157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,45544,346779,1448,2830,1311,2128,53776,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,49740],"class_list":["post-862156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-camden","tag-environmental-impacts-of-a-scrapyard-loom-in-camden","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-pollution","tag-scrap-metal","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-whyy-news-climate-desk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116737097572428175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}