Tigwelder83
ArboristSite Operative
Running a morbark 17 with my residential tree biz. Making probably 20 to 25 cu yard of chips a day and looking to expand into turning my waste into profit, anyone else turn their chips into mulch?
Turning chips into mulch
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If you have sufficient rainfall and humidity, it's doable. Best if you are able to stir or turn the heap periodically to oxygenate it. But in the end, even if you manage it well, you need a paying market. That can be tricky. For most operators, just giving away chips is a struggle.
There are a couple towns near me that do this, but they have small mulch machines that create a more consistent and refined product, and they offer the mulch to residents at no cost.
We give away as many chips as possible, what we can't we dump in a big field and mix in food scraps and chicken manure. We don't sell ours though. There are quite a few hoops to jump through to be classified as 'compost' and regulations around using manure.
JustPlainJeff
ArboristSite Operative
20-25 cubic yards of chips per day???? Seriously? That's a butt-load of chips. I've got a friend that has a mulch blowing business, and he does a lot of schools. All of the stuff for the schools has to be "certified" or some crap like that, so that it's safe for the kids. And even the stuff that's been certified he gets pretty cheap, so I don't know how much money you're going to make trying to sell it, or if it's even worth your time.
Not sure if it's worth your time if you have a free/cheap dump site as we often do out in rural penn.
I listened to Bernie Dincher do a talk on it at the Pen Del symposium last year. He's got quite the mulching/recycling operation but It gets pretty spendy on equipment. Bernie's a good person to talk to out in Williamsport.
https://dincheranddincher.com/wood-recycling/
I listened to Bernie Dincher do a talk on it at the Pen Del symposium last year. He's got quite the mulching/recycling operation but It gets pretty spendy on equipment. Bernie's a good person to talk to out in Williamsport.
https://dincheranddincher.com/wood-recycling/
The big mulch place here regrinds everything with a Morbark horizontal grinder. Don't remember which one...but when they bought it, I was told it was $1.3 million. Also was talking to a sawmill timber buyer - they do mulch too - who was telling me "you know how you get a couple thousand dollar rebate when you by a car...we got a $90,000 rebate when we bought our grinder."
Point: places that are really "doing mulch" are invested a little more than on-site chipping machines.
Point: places that are really "doing mulch" are invested a little more than on-site chipping machines.
Rabid K9
ArboristSite Guru
Straight chips / mulch is valuable resource in my region.
Worked on creating a market for mulch when Covid was getting going, as wasn't sure how things would pan out. Kind of snowballed to almost become a side business, have tried to dial it back a bit, but creating the market has made it a valuable product from jobs.
Basically have 'created' a few 'grades' of mulch around differers tree species - all eucs or allied hardwoods. I work on about $20-35 AUD per cubic metre delivered, generally deliver 20 cubic metre truck loads in a 6x4 truck, straight from the job, no secondary handling.
I used to think it expensive before found out local landscape yards where selling inferior mixed product straight from other tree businesses at $100 AUD per cubic metre, pick up!!
Produce up to 100 cubic metres a day, which I believe equates to about 130 cubic yards. Have a long wait list of private & commercial clients waiting for loads, deliver close to jobs for efficiency, on the right job it adds a tidy bonus. This is all being done with a Bandit 15" drum, we machine load everything big for speed, some of our fast growing eucs are 30m straight boles, DBH around 3-400mm, so they fill the truck quickly.
For my business, it is certainly a worthwhile product & in certain circumstances will offer clients a discount if can keep the mulch from job.
Worked on creating a market for mulch when Covid was getting going, as wasn't sure how things would pan out. Kind of snowballed to almost become a side business, have tried to dial it back a bit, but creating the market has made it a valuable product from jobs.
Basically have 'created' a few 'grades' of mulch around differers tree species - all eucs or allied hardwoods. I work on about $20-35 AUD per cubic metre delivered, generally deliver 20 cubic metre truck loads in a 6x4 truck, straight from the job, no secondary handling.
I used to think it expensive before found out local landscape yards where selling inferior mixed product straight from other tree businesses at $100 AUD per cubic metre, pick up!!
Produce up to 100 cubic metres a day, which I believe equates to about 130 cubic yards. Have a long wait list of private & commercial clients waiting for loads, deliver close to jobs for efficiency, on the right job it adds a tidy bonus. This is all being done with a Bandit 15" drum, we machine load everything big for speed, some of our fast growing eucs are 30m straight boles, DBH around 3-400mm, so they fill the truck quickly.
For my business, it is certainly a worthwhile product & in certain circumstances will offer clients a discount if can keep the mulch from job.
Little Wood
ArboristSite Lurker
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Marketing 101, find what the customers want.
I've talked with a few guys making lots of chips about the possibility of hauling to a gravel pit to add to topsoil. It's going to take a lot on Nitrogen and probably lime to get chips broken down.
I've talked with a few guys making lots of chips about the possibility of hauling to a gravel pit to add to topsoil. It's going to take a lot on Nitrogen and probably lime to get chips broken down.
FWIW I was told that chips had to be hardwood and died a uniform color to be marketable - that was the Cleveland area.
I have people ask all the time if they can use our wood chips for mulch and I always make it a point to mention that the chips are going to turn colors very rapidly. Most people don't mind. But occasionally someone does want that dyed uniform look and we send them to Lowes.
you (they) can buy mulch dye and color it on their own once it is down... it works really well.
There is no end to the financial opportunities with wood and wood by products. One could easily make millions.
After spending tens of millions. "You have to pay to play." Catbuster
Tigwelder83
ArboristSite Operative
If I wanted to sell firewood I wouldn't have fed it to my morbark 17, but time is money and the morbark is way faster than the bandit 90
