TiEnergy Marks 20 Years

TiEnergy photo

TiEnergy has marked its 20^th year as a family-owned railroad tie removal and recycling company.

Based in Hampshire, Ill., TiEnergy, a division of Midwest Companies, works with Class I, II and III carriers; commercial and industrial companies and landfills across the United States and Canada to recycle railroad ties and wood waste to reduce their carbon footprints and railroad tie waste. Midwest Companies manages industrial waste removal, hauling, construction and demolition, and related services. Grinding 5,000 railroad ties a day, TiEnergy also works to recycle crane mats, pallets, crossties, and utility poles.

“More than 22 million railroad ties are retired each year, and millions more sit idle in disposal sites and railyards,” the company notes. “TiEnergy has developed innovative solutions to responsibly remove and sustainably recycle out-of-service ties and has also created new markets of demand for old ties where none previously existed.”

TiEnergy’s Tie Plate Picker and TIEROC are designed to work together recycling old railroad ties and repurposing them. TIEROC is described as ”a new in-demand product that provides a sustainable reuse solution for millions of retired ties while also allowing landfills to streamline operations. Landfills use TIEROC as roadway material for truck deliveries. The innovative product prevents trucks from getting stuck as roads erode and also eliminates the need for carbon-intensive alternative materials such as rock and stone.” The patented Tie Plate Picker is a machine that separates the metal rail fastening hardware (tie plates, spikes, rail anchors) from railroad tie wood so the wood can be repurposed as the key ingredient in TIEROC.

Optimistic about the company’s future, TiEnergy CEO and Founder Steve Berglund, who also founded Midwest Companies, says, “We’re very proud to have reached a 20th-year milestone in our business. We recognized a gap in the market and realized we had an opportunity on our hands. Twenty years later, we’ve expanded our reach while helping our customers’ businesses operate at maximum efficiency through sustainable methods that reduce the carbon footprint of our respective industries. We’ve been able to grow as an organization under any economic condition by adapting to change and finding solutions for problems that didn’t seem solvable. I know these same principles will carry us to our 40^th year and beyond. Our motto at TiEnergy is, ‘Change the process, change the world—one tie at a time.’”