![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787098209_394_emrfire.png\")
<\/p>\nA New Jersey lawmaker is pushing for greater state oversight of scrap yards and recycling facilities as the NBC10 Investigators highlighted gaps in how fires at those sites are prevented and how lithium-ion batteries are regulated.<\/p>\n
The NBC10 Investigators found no single agency in New Jersey or Pennsylvania is responsible for preventing many recycling center and scrap yard fires, often leaving local governments and fire departments to respond after a fire has already broken out.<\/p>\n
The fires have become a recurring problem across the Philadelphia region, with lithium-ion batteries frequently identified as the cause.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection officials told the NBC10 Investigators that the agency does not track lithium-ion battery fires and noted Pennsylvania has no law requiring household battery collection, though officials said batteries should not be disposed of in regular trash.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThere have been dozens of fires at various recycling and scrap yards throughout the Philadelphia over the last few years. NBC10 investigative reporter David Charns looked into the problem and who’s responsible for stopping it.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said it does not have regulatory authority over fires and that its oversight is currently limited to certain permits, including air and stormwater permits.<\/p>\n
Democratic New Jersey Assemblyman Bill Moen, whose district includes Camden, said the issue extends far beyond New Jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn’t a New Jersey problem, it’s not even a regional problem,\u201d Moen said. \u201cIt really is a national and global problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moen is co-sponsoring legislation, Assembly Bill 2406, that would give New Jersey greater authority to oversee scrap yards. The proposal would expand the state’s role in regulating facilities such as EMR, a company that operates a scrap yard facility in Camden that has recorded 13 fires over the past six years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A fire burns at EMR’s Camden facility on May 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state would then have the instruments and the plan in place to regulate these scrap facilities in a way where we shouldn’t just assume that the municipal governments are bearing the brunt of the regulation,\u201d Moen said.<\/p>\n
Industry leaders say stronger oversight can play a role in reducing fires, but they argue the problem begins long before batteries ever reach recycling centers and scrap yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be communication, this is going to be legislation, this is going to be enforcement,\u201d said John Thomas, board president of the Construction & Demolition Recycling Association, which represents hundreds of recycling and scrap facilities.<\/p>\n
Thomas said improving battery disposal practices must be part of any long-term solution. He warned that regulations restricting how batteries are discarded, if not properly enforced, could lead to unintended consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don’t enforce that regulation or you pass bad regulation, you’re creating a different problem,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787098209_354_burns2.png\")
<\/p>\n
A suspected lithium-ion battery sparked this fire at Richard S. Burns Co. in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Moen said addressing the issue will require action at every level of government. He believes states need additional authority to regulate facilities while lawmakers pursue broader national solutions for lithium-ion battery disposal.<\/p>\n
The legislation backed by Moen has cleared an Assembly committee and is awaiting another vote in Trenton. Another bill he co-sponsored, requiring certain scrap facilities to install fire-monitoring and firefighting equipment, became law this summer.<\/p>\n
In Pennsylvania, a proposal to create a battery recycling program remains stalled in committee. Meanwhile, legislation that would establish national guidelines for lithium-ion battery disposal has passed the U.S. House but remains stalled in the Senate.<\/p>\n
The Environmental Protection Agency told NBC10 Investigators it tracks battery-related fires through news reports and is working to update a five-year-old report focused on keeping batteries out of the waste stream.<\/p>\n
EMR did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The NBC10 Investigators can be reached at\u00a0david.charns@nbcuni.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0ali.ingersoll@nbcuni.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New Jersey lawmaker is pushing for greater state oversight of scrap yards and recycling facilities as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12223,915,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-267832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-nbc10-investigators","tag-new-jersey","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}