聽Triton Group,听TenCate聽and聽iSustain announced a new recycling partnership that will convert plastic recovered from retired synthetic turf fields into composite railroad ties. As part of the partnership, Triton will create the capacity to process up to 350,000 pounds of recovered turf plastic per month. At full utilization, that would represent up to 21 million pounds over five years 鈥� roughly the amount recovered from 600-800 turf fields, and enough for more than 300,000 composite ties.
鈥淭he problem in this industry has never been supply. It has always been demand,鈥� said Greg Janson, President and CEO of Triton Group. 鈥淭he Triton Tie creates the demand for challenging material like synthetic turf. TenCate has material that needs a solution, and we have a product and a process that聽provides it. That is what makes this work. The turf comes to us at the end of its useful life on the field, and it leaves here as a railroad tie that will be in the track for decades.鈥�
The Triton Tie is a glass fiber-reinforced composite railroad tie engineered as a one-for-one replacement for wood ties. The Triton Tie meets or exceeds AREMA standards聽and has聽been approved by all major railroads in the U.S. Plastic recovered from retired turf will be one of the key ingredients in the composite tie.
鈥淔or us, innovation means thinking about the entire life of a field,鈥� said Joe Fields, CEO of TenCate Americas. 鈥淲e鈥檙e constantly looking for ways to make turf better, from how it鈥檚 designed and made to how its materials can be reused when a field is replaced. Our partnership with Triton creates an innovative new path to turn recovered turf plastic into composite railroad ties and keep those materials working for years to come.鈥�
Composite railroad ties also eliminate the need for creosote, the chemical treatment used to protect wood ties from decay, while helping preserve mature hardwood trees. At full processing capacity, replacing 300,000 wood ties with composites would avoid the use of nearly 1 million gallons of creosote and keep approximately 75,000 hardwood trees standing.
Under the agreement, TenCate will recover material from retired fields and separate the infill 鈥� sand and rubber 鈥� from the turf before baling the material and shipping it to Triton.聽Triton will then use a proprietary process to create a consistent post-consumer resin engineered for durable applications like the Triton Tie.
Triton is targeting April 1, 2027, to begin processing TenCate material, after completion of a new production line 鈥淲e are putting in equipment specifically for this material,鈥� Janson said. 鈥淥ne hundred percent of the residual rubber, sand, and backing is removed by our process before anything is pelletized. What we use in the tie is clean polyethylene resin. No rubber enters the tie. We want to be clear about that.鈥�
iSustain, which helps companies identify recycling and material recovery opportunities, brought the two companies together and is a party to the agreement. 鈥淩ecycling works when recovered material has a reliable end market,鈥� said Mark Huber, Vice President of iSustain. 鈥淲e recognized the opportunity to connect TenCate鈥檚 recovered turf with Triton鈥檚 composite railroad ties. By bringing these companies together, we helped create a practical, scalable pathway that transforms a challenging material into durable infrastructure.鈥�
TenCate is pursuing multiple recovery pathways as it expands its capabilities in the United States. The company recovers rubber infill from retired fields for reuse and is continuously testing recycled material in new turf. TenCate has established mechanical recycling relationships in Europe and is building that capability domestically.
鈥淓very generation of turf should be better than the last, including what happens when it鈥檚 time to replace it,鈥� Fields said. 鈥淭hat means reusing recovered rubber, exploring how recycled material can go back into new turf and finding other uses for recovered plastic. Triton gives us another strong option and another way to keep those materials in use.鈥�
For Triton, the partnership demonstrates the importance of creating viable end markets for recovered materials. 鈥淲hen the end market works, recycling works,鈥� Janson said. 鈥淭hat is the whole idea, and this agreement is what this looks like in practice.鈥�