We’re starting to see some warmer days around Central Virginia, and we’re getting closer to Earth Day (April 22nd). That means we’re hitting the time of year when folks get outdoors to clean their porches, prepare their gardens, and air out their homes. Why aren’t more of them gathering up their scrap metal? Spring is a great time to gather some scrap metal for recycling. The money you make can go into flowerpots, garden tools, and more! Speaking of garden tools – aren’t you tired of looking at that rusty shovel? All of those old tools are likely full of valuable metal like steel and cast iron ..read more

As a kid growing up, our next door neighbor had the car that has always been our dream ride: A 1967 Chevrolet Corvette. It was the last model of the C2 line, as 1968 brought on the introduction of the Larry Shinoda “shark” design. In our eyes, the ’67 signified the end of a glorious Corvette era. Jerry’s Corvette came in the factory fire engine red, with a white interior and white convertible top. It had a four-speed stick, and that glorious 427 cubic inch engine – the closest yet to an actual street legal racing engine. Jerry’s had the addition of a modified exhaust with two gleaming chrome s ..read more

We frequently get questions – both here and on our social media – asking if we’ll recycle certain items. More often than not, if it’s metal we will. But we prefer to have items that only contain the scrap metals we deal in. We do have some nifty tools around here for achieving those goals. We have a wire stripper that will swiftly and safely remove the insulation from old ethernet and coax cables so that we can give you top prices for the copper in the middle. We have an industrial can crusher to take care of your aluminum. Vehicles, however, are trickier. We’re not an auto shop, and everythin ..read more

As a kid growing up, our next door neighbor had the car that has always been our dream ride: A 1967 Chevrolet Corvette. It was the last model of the C2 line, as 1968 brought on the introduction of the Larry Shinoda “shark” design. In our eyes, the ’67 signified the end of a glorious Corvette era. Jerry’s Corvette came in the factory fire engine red, with a white interior and white convertible top. It had a four-speed stick, and that glorious 427 cubic inch engine – the closest yet to an actual street legal racing engine. Jerry’s had the addition of a modified exhaust with two gleaming chrome s ..read more

When you recycle scrap metal, you sometimes run into some unsavory characters. We go to great lengths to avoid accepting stolen metal, but that doesn’t mean people don’t try. Folks who work in construction and contracting know the frustration of walking up to a job site in the morning to find that someone has ripped out all of their plumbing or careful electrical work just to try and make a few bucks on some copper. One of the items that really attracts thieves is catalytic converters. Why is that? In 2020, around 16,600 catalytic converters were stolen in America. In 2022, that number skyrock ..read more

One of our guys went to the dentist the other day. It was just a routine cleaning, but he came back quite alarmed. The dentist told him that he had a “super eruption.” Was he going to lose all of his teeth? A bit of Google-ing later, we were able to reassure him that everything was fine. A few years back, he had to have one of his lower molars removed. Because there was nothing to rest against, his upper molar had dropped down a little bit. This meant that he had to spend an extra moment each day during his brushing and flossing, but it was nothing to be concerned about. The official medical t ..read more

When folks come to Bee Green Recycling to drop off their scrap metal, there’s often a lot going on. Trucks are dropping off used gutters, heavy equipment is moving metal around, and our team is helping people like you weigh their scrap. And, of course, there are happy customers at the ATM picking up the cash that they’ve earned from their scrap metal. We sometimes get asked, “What happens next?” While we gather the scrap metal, we don’t actually recycle it here. Once it’s sorted, it gets shipped out to our friends and industry peers, and then they do the work of turning your scrap into new met ..read more

We have some pretty fancy gadgets and tools around Bee Green Recycling. When you pull into our covered facility, you’ll pass two bright yellow pylons. They’re sort of like an airport metal detector, but they pick up traces of radioactive materials. You would be surprised at how many common items contain trace amounts of radioactive materials… Your first stop upon arrival is our digital scale. We weigh your vehicle when you get here with your scrap, and then again after you’ve unloaded. The difference in weight is the amount of scrap that you dropped off. And that scale is accurate down to a fe ..read more

We often get asked by folks whether or not their item of scrap can be recycled. Some items may look like they can be recycled, but are actually metals mixed with too many other things to have any real value. The best bang for your buck is a metal that passes the “Magnet Test.” The Magnet Test helps to identify a metal that has a high concentration of iron. This is known as a “ferrous” metal. This comes from the Latin word, “ferrum,” which means iron. Ferrous metals are also prone to rust, which is another good “tell.” Many non-ferrous metals can be recycled. These include aluminum, tin, copper ..read more

We’ve often wondered about that phrase. “Let’s get down to brass tacks.” There are some who say that it refers to the tacks nailed into the counter in a merchant’s shop. If you were buying something that was sold by the foot or yard, instead of pulling out the old tape measure, the merchant would lay it across the counter to see how many tacks you were buying. Others say it comes from the custom of nailing a tack into your gun stock to mark your prowess as a rifleman. Brass is easy to polish, so anyone looking could tell that you were a sure shot. Whatever the roots of the saying, mankind has ..read more