AA Midwest Breaks Ground For New Auto Recycling Facility
Company’s Blue Island, Illinois location will help fulfill export market demands
(CHICAGO, IL) – AA Midwest, a division of AAEQ Manufacturers and Recyclers, recently broke ground on a new 80,000 sq. ft. facility in the south suburbs of Chicago. Located in Blue Island, Ill., over 50,000 sq. ft. of the space will be dedicated to the expansion of the company’s automotive recycling business. The project is being overseen by Triad Construction of West Chicago, Ill.
Currently, AA Midwest processes 40 whole vehicles per week, primarily for export. The company ships a large volume of complete engine and drive train systems to developing countries to meet their business requirements.
“Our new Blue Island location will help us meet the increasing demand for vehicles that we are receiving from our export market customers,” said William “Billy” Stolberg, president and COO, AAEQ. Stolberg, who runs the company’s operations in Chicago, explained that “some vehicles that are no longer useful here in the U.S. are in great demand in Mexico and South American countries. Our goal is to service the export market only.”
The export market consumes engines and transmissions, steering gears, sheet metal including doors, hoods and clips. “Clips come in many forms,” said Stolberg. “Front cuts, whole front ends, back ends or half of a vehicle. We also harvest, wheels, catalytic converters and tires are sold for recycling. At AAEQ we feel we are doing our part to keep vehicles out of landfills and into useful service.”
Vehicle processing is the dismantling of a car or truck that cannot or should not be returned to the road to reuse the components. Vehicles are brought into the company’s Chicago facility and disassembled. AA Midwest is responsible through local, state and federal regulation--as well as the company’s own concern for the environment--for the proper recycling or disposal of all automotive related fluids and components. This includes gasoline, oil, Freon, antifreeze, brake fluid, batteries and transmission fluid.
Established in 1949, AA Midwest is also known as the source for hard-to-find cores for import/domestic cars or light trucks (gas or diesel engine). Between its warehouses in Chicago and North Las Vegas, AA Midwest’s inventory includes over 150,000 engines and transmissions and other internal part cores.