George W. Scott, Sr, fondly known as “Scotty” with his two sons George W Scott, Jr., and Shane Scott, Sr. established Chico Scrap Metal, Inc. July of 1983. However, the story does not begin there.
George stopped attending school at the eighth grade and from there on was solely focused on working (selling newspapers, doing odd jobs) and eventually getting old enough to join the armed forces. He did exactly that, at age 17 he joined the Navy.
In 1955/56’ George Sr. returned from the Korean war to Chico, his home town. Initially he worked and operated an auto wrecking/dismantling yard in Orland, CA. As well, in an effort to earn extra money, as he had five children to raise, he purchased an old pickup truck for $10, bought a metal torch on credit and began traveling from home to home asking people if they had old cars that could be cut up and sold as scrap metal. The young entrepreneur charged around five dollars to dismantle each vehicle, thus enabling his customers to sell their iron pieces to a local scrap metal company.
After a couple years he had the opportunity to own an auto wrecking/dismantling yard in Chico, and thus he opened at 2512 Fair Street as Scotty’s Auto Wreckers. He operated Scotty’s Auto Wreckers into the late 1960’s / early 1970’s. About this time as business practices began to change in the auto wrecking industry he started to venture into the scrap metal recycling business.
In the 1970’s Scotty opened Discount Auto Wreckers and began branching into scrap metal at 1197 Humboldt Ave. Eventually the city of Chico took the property at 1197 Humboldt Ave. under eminent domain and facilitated the relocation of his business to its current site at 878 E. 20th Street, where he opened up for business in 1983.
Over the years, George has been able to expand his business to two other locations, Durham and Oroville.
At each of his locations he has operating/working are his children and grandchildren — and hopes to continue the family tradition for generations to come.
We (his family) couldn’t be prouder of his accomplishments and the foresight he had to be Green before Green was Green , as we carry on the family business of Recycling Today for a Green Tomorrow.