Cleantech and railways: the ties that bind
A little over a year ago I wrote about a company called EcoDuro that makes recyclable shipping pallets out of corrugated cardboard and recycled paper. Its goal was to replace wood-based pallets with bug-resistant, environmentally friendly alternatives that cost less and are lighter. It’s a simple, almost boring product that makes a whole lot of sense. A similarly simple product is being promoted by a Texas company called TieTek, which has been profiled at Cleantech Spotlight.
TieTek makes railway crossties that are made mostly from recycled materials, including old car tires, plastic bottles and plastic bags. They apparently have double the lifespan of standard wood-based ties. On top of that they don’t warp like wood and are not vulnerable to decay, bugs and deterioration due to extreme weather. “In the U.S. alone 18 million railway ties need replacing each year and that number jumps to 60 million globally,” writes Cleantech Spotlight. “According to industry statistics, 87 per cent of the railway tie replacement market is dominated by wood ties, with 10 per cent being concrete and the remainder alternative materials. This presents a clear opportunity for alternatives to gain substantial market share.”
Again, boring, boring, boring. But huge opportunity, not unlike the market for printer cartridges, batteries, Mach III razor blades and vacuum bags. People always need replacements, so revenue is recurring once market share is wrestled away from the incumbent, in this case wood.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
