It’s been two years since Rhode Island Recycled Metals went to court against Providence over the city’s authority to regulate the controversial scrap metal business, but the issue is still far from being settled.
With the Superior Court case still pending, the city Board of Licenses on March 26 again postponed consideration of a junk license for the Allens Avenue business that for more than a decade has been the focus of complaints from neighbors, environmental groups and elected officials over noise, odors and pollution.
The dispute with Providence centers on whether the Allens Avenue business needs a city-issued junk license to remain in operation. The city says it does. Recycled Metals argues that it doesn’t.
An excavator pulls charred metal out of a pile to help firefighters pour water onto the burning heart of a scrap metal fire at Rhode Island Recycled Metals in July 2024.
How did we get here?
The licensing issue was first raised during the administration of former Mayor Jorge Elorza. It came to a head in 2024 after Brett Smiley took office when Recycled Metals, at the urging of the city, submitted an application to the Board of Licenses but then after a series of continuances withdrew it, opting to file suit instead.
The board was set to take up the issue once again March 12 but put it off when representatives of the business didn’t appear at the meeting. They asked for another continuance before the March 26 meeting, citing the ongoing court case, according to Jose Giusti, the city’s director of licensing.
“I just want to put on the record, since I posted this agenda, I’ve had 39 objections submitted via email,” he told the board at the meeting.
A spokesman for Recycled Metals didn’t respond to a request for comment.
RI Recycled Metals also being sued by DEM
The case against the city is not the only suit involving the company in state Superior Court. A long-running case filed by the state Department of Environmental Management and the Office of Attorney General Peter Neronha is still pending.
In 2024, they asked a judge to shut down the business after two fires on the riverfront site sent plumes of black smoke over Providence. The business was allowed to remain open but with stricter oversight from a special master who’d been appointed in 2016.
Louis DeSimone, the attorney for the board, recommended that it hold off any decision on the junk license until there’s more developments in the court cases.
“Whether the board were to grant or deny the license at this point in time, it wouldn’t affect operations,” he said. “The facility would still be continuing to operate under the court orders — at least that’s my opinion from reading the court orders.”
Mayor Smiley reiterates pledge to shut business down
South Providence residents who came to the hearing complained that Recycled Metals has drawn out the legal process to remain in operation.
“How many times do they get to postpone with this body?” said Linda Perri, president of the Washington Park Neighborhood Association. “Is it indefinite?”
After Monica Huertas, founder of the People’s Port Authority, an environmental justice nonprofit, also complained of delays initiated by the business, board vice chair Adewole Akinbi said, “We’re aware of this game.”
After the March 12 board meeting, Smiley reiterated his intent “to shut down this bad actor”
“Our South Providence neighbors deserve better,” he said.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI Recycled Metals asks for more time in junk license case
