The newspaper Kommersant has published an article "When sleepers go plastic" in its science supplement. The article discusses the possibility of replacing wooden and concrete sleepers with polymer ones. Ravil Fehretdinov, EcoTechnologies' R&D Director, provided his commentary for the article. Other experts include Amirkhan Amirkhanov, Advisor to the Head of Rosprirodnadzor, Denis Butsaev, General Director of PPC REO, and Pavel Ivankin, President of the National Research Center for Transport and Infrastructure.
Ravil Fehretdinov explained the advantages of polymer sleepers:
A polymer sleeper can be recycled, as it is based on a thermoplastic polymer, which can be crushed several times, melted, and a new product (the same sleeper) can be obtained by extruding the melt and further pressing in a hot state.
Currently, however, there is no nationwide standard for the composition of plastic sleepers, which sometimes makes recycling and reuse impossible. Some materials interfere with recycling, while others cause adverse effects when remelted.
Government investment in research and development is needed to solve this problem, develop standards, and get polymer sleeper production up and running.
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Government investment in research and development is needed to solve this problem, develop standards, and get polymer sleeper production up and running.
Read the full story.