Anybody selling wood chips?

[epicklein22]

Does anyone on here sell wood chips by the yard? My work usually sells their chips every year to an incinerator/boiler in Akron, but they never fired up it up this year. So I have a buddy with a stake body dump truck and decided to throw up an ad on CL for wood chips. $8 bucks a yard plus delivery. Anybody else try this or have some success? I know there isn't much money there, but it beats nothing and will put some money in my pocket, my buddy's and my boss'/owner's.

 

[pdqdl]

I have had grounds maintenance contracts in the past that would use my composted chips.

Nurseries will typically accept truckloads of chips, but nobody in our area would ever pay for them. There are too many tree services trying to get rid of them.

 

[treeman82]

One nursery around here just put up a sign this year, you want to dump chips, it's $25 per truckload. In the past it was free.

I've done a bunch of jobs in the past where the client wanted to cover a large area in chips... 10 - 100 yards of clean chips, you get some money for the material, and then you get money to spread them.

 

[epicklein22]

Ya, that is the general consensus around here too. We will give them away to customers/nurseries, sell some on a job where we spread it, and the rare occasion where we charge to dump the chips. I thinking I might be able to snag some business off CL where people don't understand they could find them for free. I think offering quality chips will be key. I will update this thread if I get some good business.

 

[jefflovstrom]

I am always looking for free dumping, the cheapest I can find is the next option, but palm is not considered 'green waste' and cost alot. Took a load to Escondido city dump (cause no-one wants it) and that load was $600.00. I always call Cal-Trans to see if they will acept chips and I get lucky with them. Tough sometimes dumping on a busy freeway like I-5. I will never find anyone to buy it.
Jeff

 

[beastmaster]

We have a sign on the back of our chipper truck,"free wood chips". In ten years its gone from 5.00 to dump to 135.00 for a 12ft chipper truck. I worked for a guy who had a beast grinder and he had a deal with a local fence company and took all their old cedar and redwood fences and did pretty good selling redwood chips to landscapers.

 

[PurdueJoe]

Why aren't palms considered green waste?? Sorry for a dump question but I've never had to work with them.

 

[jefflovstrom]

We have a sign on the back of our chipper truck,"free wood chips". In ten years its gone from 5.00 to dump to 135.00 for a 12ft chipper truck. I worked for a guy who had a beast grinder and he had a deal with a local fence company and took all their old cedar and redwood fences and did pretty good selling redwood chips to landscapers.

Did you dump more at $5.00 than now at $135.00 ,Sounds like you got something good going on! Must be some special stuff.
Jeff

 

[beastmaster]

Why aren't palms considered green waste?? Sorry for a dump question but I've never had to work with them.

I think it maybe cause palm doesn't compose vary well and those fronds like to wrap around the tub in tub grinders. Figure out a use for palm waste and you could become rich i think.

 

[jefflovstrom]

I think it maybe cause palm doesn't compose vary well and those fronds like to wrap around the tub in tub grinders. Figure out a use for palm waste and you could become rich i think.

Not just palm, they say palm last longer in a landfill than Pampers. But also tough to dump Yucca and Erythrina, ( coral trees ), and more and more people are rejecting pine unless it is only wood chips- no green.

 

[beastmaster]

Did you dump more at $5.00 than now at $135.00 ,Sounds like you got something good going on! Must be some special stuff.
Jeff

We do pack the truck a lot more. In all seriousness there use to be 5 green dumps with in a 10 mile radius, now even the last one(135.00)has packed up. Lucky we hooked up a deal with a few other tree companys and we truck our chips up north somewhere at a lost I'm told but still cheaper then dumping locally. At 40.00 a ton the waste dump isn't no deal and its not close. Time is money

 

[pdqdl]

Geez!

I only pay $40 for a single axle truck of wood chips, regardless of the volume. Tandem axle of logs & brush: $125.00

Wood chips are free if you are willing to drive all the way to one of the nurseries.

At $600 per truckload, I would think you could buy some old ravine that nobody is willing to build on and truck your own yard waste out to it. California probably has some law against that, don't they?

You could always go into the "compost manufacturing business", and charge your peers $600 per truckload for their palm fronds. Mix it 50% with topsoil, bag it, and sell it for more than the regular dirt. [not my idea: there is a big company here in KC that does just that.] I can't imagine that the sandpile you guys call dirt in San Diego could ever have too much organic material in it.

 

[jefflovstrom]

You said it, Time is money, weigh the difference.
Jeff

 

[epicklein22]

Geeze, that must really make things tough for you guys out in Cali. Dumping is free around here, mulch companies tell everyone to keep bringing it.

We just dump everything in the acre of swampy land behind the shop. We just clean it out every couple of years by loading it and delivering it to a incinerator or boiler.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Geeze, that must really make things tough for you guys out in Cali. Dumping is free around here, mulch companies tell everyone to keep bringing it.

We just dump everything in the acre of swampy land behind the shop. We just clean it out every couple of years by loading it and delivering it to a incinerator or boiler.

If you are trying to make me jealous, it is working.
Jeff

 

[epicklein22]

If you are trying to make me jealous, it is working.
Jeff

Does anyone make mulch out of the palm chips? How does it chip in general? I remember chipping some tiny ornamental palm for a customer once. It was almost like shaved ice coming out of the shoot.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

At $600 per truckload, I would think you could buy some old ravine that nobody is willing to build on and truck your own yard waste out to it. California probably has some law against that, don't they?

Count on it.

You could always go into the "compost manufacturing business", and charge your peers $600 per truckload for their palm fronds. Mix it 50% with topsoil, bag it, and sell it for more than the regular dirt. [not my idea: there is a big company here in KC that does just that.] I can't imagine that the sandpile you guys call dirt in San Diego could ever have too much organic material in it.

I used to know a guy who had the contract to clean out the stables at Santa Anita race track. He got paid to take the stuff which he hauled it out to the desert, where he ground it up, composted it with, you guessed it, wood chips and other green waste, and sold mulch and blended topsoil.

He was making a killing!

 

[Ellistrees]

Chips are free to get rid of in Indiana as well.

Lots of people request for filling in low spots. Local mulch company takes all everyone brings including brush, stumps and wood.

We use it around our place to fill in low spots.

Sure hope things don't change around here.

 

[jefflovstrom]

If you got a chuck and duck, thats best but need to stomp the fluff down now and again to fill the truck. Roller feeds will have stringy fibers that grab on and spin . On Morbark chippers, we chip with the belly plate open. Seems like you can load more by hand and stacking inside the truck, but, time is money.
Jeff

 

[jefflovstrom]

Lots of people request for filling in low spots. Local mulch company takes all everyone brings including brush, stumps and wood.

We use it around our place to fill in low spots.

Sure hope things don't change around here.

Don't do palms and you won't. Palm is not compost material, it is trash and you pay by what the scale says. Mix it? You can try but if you get caught you could screw yourself of a dump site. California, gotta love it.
Jeff