Camden sues scrap metal recycler EMR, claiming company fell short on promised donations

From Camden and Cherry Hill to Trenton and the Jersey Shore, what about life in New Jersey do you want WHYY News to cover? Let us know.

The city of Camden has sued EMR, a scrap metal recycling company with five facilities in the Waterfront South neighborhood that have been the site of repeated fires, claiming the company violated an agreement to provide grant money for community initiatives.

A memorandum of understanding signed between the city and the company in August 2025 in response to a massive fire at EMR earlier that year required the company to pay an initial $1 million into a community benefits fund administered by the Community Foundation of South Jersey, plus $450,000 each year for five years. The money was to be distributed to nonprofits working in Camden for community improvements or medical, environmental, educational and scientific initiatives.

But the company has only deposited just over $783,000 into the fund since the agreement was signed last August, according to a document filed in a separate lawsuit by the New Jersey Office of Attorney General against EMR.

The fund’s balance totals close to $2.3 million, according to a fund summary provided by EMR to WHYY News. Most of that money was deposited by the company before the agreement was signed, according to WHYY News’ analysis of EMR’s court filing.

William M. Tambussi, a lawyer for the city of Camden, claims EMR is merely repurposing money donated to the Community Foundation under an earlier arrangement with the nonprofit from 2023.

“For them to say that money that they have been depositing in this community fund in 2023 somehow applied to the initial payment language that’s in the MOU of 2025, it doesn’t pass the smell test at all,” Tambussi said in an interview Friday.

In its complaint filed in New Jersey Superior Court Friday, the city of Camden says EMR’s actions amount to “bad faith and a material breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” The lawsuit follows a letter Tambussi wrote to EMR in July informing the company that the city believed it had violated the agreement.

EMR rejects this characterization. The company’s lawyers wrote in a letter to Tambussi in July that EMR has fully satisfied its obligations for donations under the agreement. EMR provided a copy of the letter to WHYY News.

EMR USA CEO Joe Balzano said in an interview before the city filed its lawsuit that city officials knew of EMR’s plan to fund the grants required under the MOU with this existing fund when they negotiated the agreement. Tambussi denies this.

“Personally, I find it offensive that we’re worrying about semantics when there’s people that have an actual need, and we’re trying to distribute money to it,” Balzano said.

Kristin Schrum, a mother of two young children who lives just blocks away from EMR’s metal shredder, said the company should donate the full amount outlined in the agreement, without counting donations made before it was signed. Schrum has evacuated her home multiple times due to fires at EMR facilities.

“Past contributions were for past fires, not the one that triggered the MOU,” she said. “EMR should give the full amount.”

The latest legal battle involving Camden’s EMR

EMR’s Camden scrap metal recycling facilities, located in a majority Black and Hispanic neighborhood where nearly a third of residents live in poverty, have been the site of 14 fires since 2020, according to the New Jersey Office of Attorney General. Some of these fires have sent dangerous pollution into the surrounding neighborhood, forcing residents to evacuate their homes and leaving some with lingering psychological distress and concerns about their health.

After a two-alarm fire at EMR’s scrap metal shredder in May, the city suspended the site’s junkyard license.

EMR then sued the city, claiming it had violated the company’s right to due process. A judge allowed the facility to restart in July after taking fire safety precautions. The city has since withdrawn the license suspension, but the two parties are still sparring in court over whether the company suffered damages due to the work stoppage.

A ‘better neighbor’ fund that hasn’t reached neighbors

EMR established a fund with the Community Foundation of South Jersey in October 2023, according to a summary of the fund included in the company’s July letter to the city.

Balzano said the company created this fund, called the EMR Camden Community Investment Fund, to “become a better neighbor.” The company initially tried to start its own nonprofit but was unsuccessful, he said, later opting to house the fund at the Community Foundation.

“We didn’t know what we were doing, frankly,” Balzano said.

EMR started the fund with a donation of over $524,000 in October 2023 and has made donations of between $30,000 and $95,000 to the fund most months since then. No disbursements were made from the fund prior to the signing of the 2025 agreement between EMR and the city. Balzano said this was because the company wanted to allow the fund time to grow before spending it.

The city’s lawsuit argues that the fund started in 2023 cannot be used to satisfy EMR’s obligations under its later agreement with the city, because the two funds are governed  differently. Grantmaking decisions for the fund created by EMR’s 2025 agreement with the city are to be made by a committee with representation from the city, EMR and Camden residents, while EMR’s 2023 fund is controlled solely by the Community Foundation of South Jersey, with grantmaking recommendations from EMR officials, the city’s lawsuit notes.

Balzano said the company’s plan to satisfy last year’s donation commitments using a preexisting fund was “part of conversations with the city” when the deal was written. He said elements of the agreement, including the involvement of the Community Foundation of South Jersey in managing the community benefits fund and the donation amounts, were based on the existence of the earlier fund.

“They [city officials] knew that,” Balzano said.

Tambussi, the lawyer representing the city of Camden, disputes this.

“That’s just not accurate,” Tambussi said. “And the language of the MOU does not support that.”

A lawyer representing the Community Foundation of South Jersey declined to comment.

More than a year after city inked deal with EMR, no community grants distributed

None of EMR’s community benefits money has been distributed for community grants since the company signed its memorandum of understanding with the city in August 2025. Balzano said the single disbursement from EMR’s community investment fund has been $310,000 to buy the city of Camden a new fire truck, a requirement under the deal.

In their July letter, EMR’s lawyers pinned the delay in distributing grants in part on the city and City Council, saying they had failed to appoint members to the committee tasked with approving grant distributions from the fund until early 2026. The committee, composed of representatives from EMR, the city and two residents, then met twice in February, according to EMR’s letter. It decided that the Camden Community Partnership, a nonprofit led by former Camden Mayor Dana Redd, should be paid from the fund to develop a community survey to guide the committee’s funding decisions. The committee was set to meet in June to discuss results of the survey, but the process was postponed due to the fire in May.

“Once the fire happened, … we didn’t know if we were going to be operating anymore,” Balzano said. “I don’t think we would have gotten an answer from the city or from the residents in a way that would have been productive. So I think the delay was almost something that wasn’t really in my control.”

In EMR’s July letter to the city, the company said it wished to meet “as soon as possible” to ensure that distributions from the fund could occur in accordance with the agreement.

“We have $2.3 million at the moment ready to distribute and hoping that we can start doing that,” Balzano said.

Balzano said that the company distributed the survey during a community forum Thursday evening.

“One of the concerns that I’ve heard from the community … is that they would like to have their voices heard on this,” he said. “What my goal is, is to actually use these dollars to make an impact on the members of the community.”

In a statement after the city filed its lawsuit, Balzano said EMR has kept its promises under the 2025 agreement with the city, including completing an automated fire suppression system, working toward consolidating its physical footprint in Waterfront South, and fully funding the community benefits fund. He said the company is “eagerly awaiting” votes from the city-appointed committee members “in hopes of awarding funds to support meaningful community services in Waterfront South.”

Schrum sees it as the city’s responsibility to convene committee meetings.

“If they’re not going to do that, then a restructuring of it needs to happen in a way that favors the residents,” she said. “Not funding it completely and not distributing it doesn’t do much of anything.”