A key effort to increase oversight has been slow to advance. A bill that would reclassify scrap metal facilities like EMR’s as recyclers was introduced in the state legislature in June 2025 but has yet to pass in this session. The bill would require scrap metal recyclers to limit the size of shredder residue piles, mandate fire suppression systems and employee training, and require battery screening policies.
One of the bill’s sponsors, State Assemblyman Bill Moen, whose district includes Camden, framed the measure as a necessary response to the proliferation of lithium-ion batteries in consumer products. “We need to basically follow suit and level up in how we are then classifying that waste,” he said in March.
The Recycled Materials Association, a trade group for recyclers that counts EMR as a member, opposes the bill. Frank Brill, a lobbyist representing ReMA, argued that it would burden small scrap metal businesses with additional bureaucracy.
“The only problem has come with these lithium-ion battery fires,” Brill said. “Subjecting [facilities] to annual fees and reviews and inspections and anything else that DEP wants to come up with … that are just going to be more trouble for this industry.”
A different bill requiring specific fire safety measures at scrap metal facilities, including remotely operated fire suppression systems at large scrap metal facilities, advanced through both chambers of the legislature this month and is awaiting a final legislative vote before it can head to the governor’s desk. EMR had expressed support for the bill earlier this spring, before it was amended to lower the allowable height for material piles.
The company was the top spender on lobbying in New Jersey within the environmental protection sector in 2025, according to state records.
Throughout these battles, EMR and its allies have consistently pointed to lithium-ion batteries as the cause of the fires. EMR and ReMA say there is currently no technology that allows scrapyards to automatically detect these batteries when they’re hidden inside scrap. An analysis by The Margin and WHYY News of three fire investigative reports on the barge fire May 23, 2022, the fire February 21, 2025, and the fire October 17, 2025, concluded the probable cause of ignition was undetermined.
“It’s not just our industry that is challenged by lithium-ion batteries. They’re in everything,” said David Wagger, ReMA’s chief scientist. “Our members do their best because, quite frankly, it’s an existential threat. No one wants to have not only their reputation ruined, but their facility become damaged and perhaps burn down.”
A bill introduced to Congress last fall by U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, who represents Camden, would create a tax credit to partially reimburse recycling companies for the cost of battery detectors, impose a tax on battery manufacturers and create a lithium battery recycling program, which would provide grants to facilities that collect and recycle lithium batteries.
“Local jobs are important, but the community also needs to be safe,” Norcross said in a written statement.