Plastic ties: a substitute for wood? - railroad ties - U.S. Plastic Lumber Corp.'s Earth Care Products; recycled plastic, 50-year life - Brief Article

Railway Age, Sept, 1996

A new plastic railroad crosstie manufactured from 100% post-consumer and post-industrial waste, and tested by Conrail and Norfolk Southern, is now available to the railroad industry worldwide through Earth Care Products, the operating arm of U.S. Plastic Lumber Corp. The Boca Raton, Fla.based manufacturer of recycled plastic lumber has been granted exclusive rights to manufacture and market the ties through a cooperative arrangement with Rutgers University in New Jersey.

The plastic ties, developed by Earth Care, Rutgers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Research Laboratories, and several railroads, are designed to replace ties made of creosote-treated wood and are being touted as alternative to concrete ties. They are claimed to offer significant savings in maintenance costs as well as improved safety, and are also claimed to be similar in weight and performance to wood.

"While the expected durable life of a wood tie is about 12 years, the recycled plastic ties have an estimated useful life of more than 50 years," says David Farrow, president, U.S Plastic Lumber. "In addition to being comparably priced to concrete ties, they are much lighter and easier to install. More important, recycled plastic ties provide the correct amount of 'give' under the weight of a railroad car. Concrete ties are much less resilient, which can cause excessive wear on railcar trucks and wheel assemblies."

Farrow says that U.S, railroads alone replace more than 11 million ties every year. "We are optimistic about the huge potential market for plastic ties," he says.