Camden Is Burning: EMR And The NJ Political Machine

There’s a famous song whose lyrics are as follows:

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire,
We don’t need no water,
Let the m********* burn,
Burn m**********, burn!

Every time I’ve heard those lyrics, it’s usually from the collective mouths of enthusiastic partygoers to let you know that the party is lit, as the young people say. That chant usually means the music is right, the drinks are flowing, and the crowd’s energy is incredible. In other words, everybody is having a great time. No one actually wants anything to burn, but under the right circumstances, if something did catch fire, the crowd likely wouldn’t stop it.

Unless the crowd is made up of Camden City residents, and the fire is at an EMR recycling facility. Although “burn” could mean a good time, for Camden residents, it is a literal, toxic threat. The EMR fires have exhausted a community that both wants and needs water.

Numerous fires have occurred at the EMR facility, including one last year that produced smoke visible for miles in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Another happened at the end of February, at the EMR Metal Recycling facility—the same facility from a year ago. Thankfully, the fire was contained, and no one was hurt.

But the fire, once again, puts EMR and city officials in the line of fire, no pun intended. 

The series of fires at EMR facilities in 2025 was often caused by lithium-ion battery combustion. While it is unclear if these batteries caused the February fire, the fires themselves are a concern for residents. Even more, what the city is doing to remedy these fires and support residents impacted. 

Camden City Council approved a $6.7 million memorandum of understanding with EMR in September of last year. Only $3.25 million will go to city residents, and the decision on how monies from the MOU will be spent will be made by a committee comprising two city government officials, two residents selected by the mayor, and four representatives of EMR.  

This committee structure is a masterclass in optical inclusion. While the city of nearly 72,000 residents is “represented,” they hold only two of the eight seats—and even those are hand-picked by the mayor. EMR, meanwhile, comprises half the board. It can be argued that government officials represent the city, but my question is, if the $6.7 million is for the city, why can’t the city determine how the money is spent without input from EMR?

Residents and community allies protested the deal, citing backdoor politics and the community’s lack of say in the agreement. 

In a move some residents may have found satisfactory if not vindicating, New Jersey’s Attorney General and Environmental Protection Commissioner under Governor Murphy sued EMR, alleging that at least 12 hazardous fires took place at the facility in the last five years, including a massive fire last February that prompted dozens of nearby residents to evacuate. In a statement to WHYY, former Attorney General Matt Platkin said:

“It’s been time and time again that they’ve consistently put their own profits ahead of the safety and well-being of the residents of the Camden community, and we’re putting a stop to it.”

In response to the lawsuit, EMR USA CEO Joseph Balzano said that he was looking forward to cooperating with the state and referred them to the MOU with the city of Camden as proof of EMR’s commitment to action and work on the issue. But the reality is that the fires will continue to happen, polluting the air and injuring Camden’s residents as long as the scrapyard where they take place remains in the city. The 152-page lawsuit can be read here. 

The MOU between EMR and the city of Camden does not call for the removal of the scrapyard. The politics are clear and concerning to residents. 

According to a Pro Publica report, EMR received a $133 million tax incentive for relocating to Camden when a client of Democratic Party boss George Norcross and his brother Philip Norcross’s law and lobbying firms. According to South Jersey Progressive Democrats, City Council President Angel Fuentes, and Councilman Arthur Barclay—who represents citizens impacted by EMR fires—have received campaign donations from EMR. 

Both Fuentes and Barclay, as well as Camden mayor Victor Carstarphen (who negotiated the MOU with EMR), are members of the Camden County Democratic Committee under party boss George Norcross.

As I mentioned previously, Camden residents must contend with pollution from a sewage plant, a garbage incinerator, and now, a trash pile of burning lithium-ion batteries that continues to burn. Why? Camden has always been considered a dumping ground for the facilities deemed undesirable in the suburbs. It’s not enough to zone Black and brown people out of suburban neighborhoods. Those facilities—drug treatment facilities and toxic waste facilities, for example—aren’t found in the suburbs.  

Whether it’s “budget realities” or attempting to make Camden great again, excuses abound for the politics behind memorandums of understanding, past reductions in police and educator staff, and current school closures. However, all the people want is not to wake up to smoke and flames, have to evacuate their homes because of them, or worse—breathe in the toxic air for days after the fire’s been put out. If the politics made the removal of the scrapyard possible, residents would be satisfied. Maybe, they’d praise the politics. 

However, for all of the politics, the scrapyard remains in place, and it continues to burn, and that puts Camden in danger. Lithium-ion batteries burnt at EMR facilities pose long-term neurological issues, systemic toxicity, and respiratory issues, such as lung cancer and asthma. In a state where Asthma disproportionately kills Black and Latino/a/e children at a rate that’s three times higher, Camden displays higher rates of asthma than anywhere else in the state. 

According to the American Lung Association, the Camden-Philadelphia-Reading metro area fails in every clean air indicator, the same is true for Camden County. The rate of asthma hospitalizations is highest in Camden County. According to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, one in three children in Camden County has asthma.

Profits over people. This is the nature of modern racial capitalism: political and economic decisions that reinforce both exploitation and repression of the people, highlighting the inextricable links between race, class, and power. But why? Why keep a metal yard around if the owner cannot control its own fires and the chemicals released into the air harm residents? What is it worth to the city government and the party machine to keep this facility, and other toxic facilities in an area when the people don’t want it there? 

Is it because Camden’s residents are Black and Latino/a/e? Camden isn’t the only place where the Black and Latino/a/e live, but what’s also true is that very few of Camden’s residents are white. Any situation similar to this would be vehemently protested elsewhere. How do I know? Because the residents of Winslow Township led the effort to prevent a regional jail from being built in their community. Suburban communities fight back. But not all suburban communities have the worst weight of the state’s political machine on them.

Camden’s residents have fight in them too, and amid the neo-colonialist politics, they show up at city council meetings, school board meetings, and on the streets to challenge the status quo. Camden’s people have the heart necessary to overcome the political odds stacked against them. I wonder when those in power will have the heart to stop stacking the odds against them.