Why Railroad Ties?
Sigurdson and his friend Bill Montour, a tribal chief in Ontario, had worked with CP on a previous project involving harvesting of unused telephone poles with the help of local natives. The CP CEO at that time, Rob Ritchie, was impressed with their work and he enlisted their help again when he had another idea to pursue. He wanted to develop a green project involving railroad ties, which usually are either chipped and sold as hog fuel to large cement companies, small energy companies and other organizations, or sent to landfills, Sigurdson says. CP disposes of about 1 million ties per year and railways all across Canada and the U.S. dispose of about 25 million per year. Bill and I and my wife (JoJo, who is part owner of ACC), being aboriginal and native, wanted to help out the tribes, Sigurdson says. EERC was the solution ACC sought. Coming in with creosote ties was a bit of a challenge, he says. And EERC took that challenge. Surprise, Its Clean Too The fact that the technology reduces
