ARCOA Group celebrates 25 years in business

The ARCOA Group, headquartered in Waukegan, Illinois, has announced that it is celebrating 25 years in business in 2015. Ed Spriegel founded the IT asset management and electronics recycling company in 1990 as Midwest Copier Exchange. The company provides asset remarketing and recycling for all types of “end of use” office electronics and copiers.

The ARCOA Group was formed in 2013 with the merger of Midwest Copier Exchange, a company Spriegel formed in his garage in 1990, and ARCOA (Asset Recycling Co. of America), an electronics recycling company. The ARCOA Group currently employs more than 80 full-time people at four locations in Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland and Florida. 

Regarding the founding of Midwest Copier Exchange, Spriegel says, “I was working in a large corporation and didn’t like what I saw. I wanted something different for myself, my family and hopefully for my future employees. I wanted to build a company that encouraged free thinking and innovation, and I did not want our decisions and actions to be defined by traditional ‘corporate’ norms.”

Midwest Copier Exchange began as a remarketer of used copiers that Spriegel would purchase from local copier dealers and resell to other copier dealers in the Chicago metro area. The business expanded to serve customers across the United States and globally.

The company says its expertise in the industry has led to partnerships with a number of large financial leasing institutions that ARCOA would provide with remarketing services of off-lease office and medical equipment.

While remarketing continues to be a core focus of The ARCOA Group, in 2009 Spriegel says he saw a growing need for electronics recycling and partnered with George Hinkle to establish Midwest Electronics Recycling.

Initially, Midwest Electronics Recycling recycled only copiers, printers and fax machines from Midwest Copier Exchange that were considered obsolete or unrepairable. As the company continued to grow, it began offering recycling services to corporate customers in the Chicago metro area.

Terry Levy joined Hinkle and Spriegel as a partner in 2010, bringing an extensive background in precious metals and electronics recycling gained after many years in the industry in South Africa.

In 2011, Midwest Electronics Recycling certified to the R2 (Responsible Recycling Practices) and ISO14001 standards and changed its name to ARCOA to better identify as a nationwide provider of asset management and electronics recycling services. ARCOA also provides services to other recyclers, computer refurbishers and scrap metal yards through the purchase of scrap commodities and electronics that require disassembly and processing.

The ARCOA Group’s services include deinstallation at customer locations, transportation of equipment in their own fleet of trucks, data sanitization, serialized equipment reports, certificates of recycling and destruction, remarketing services, redeployment of equipment and recycling for end-of-life electronics throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company’s services also include toner cartridge recycling and a buy-back program for mobile phones, with additional program offerings in development to better serve their existing and future customers.