My city gives away free mulch

[Mr4213]

I have noticed that my city gives away free mulch.

You simply pull up anytime you want, and they let you take as much as you want.

I am trying to come up with ideas for taking this free mulch and selling it somewhere else.

I wanted to see if you guys had any ideas about what I could do with free mulch.

Thank you

 

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[Rabby]

I've gotten tree companies to dump mulch on my property. Mostly I use it to compost and make new topsoil. I've used it (after a year or so) as garden soil, etc.

Things people can do with it:
* Of course, use as mulch.
* Compost for dirt, like I usually do.
* If you put it into a high efficiency burner, and/or a reduction atmosphere burner, there are a few neat things you can do with it. You can make these burners or buy them.
1. You can generate heat and pipe it through your house if it's cold. Add a thermocouple or two for some extra power harvesting.
2. Power a boiler and make electricity. I figured out I can make it cheaper than the power company sells it to me, fwiw, burning free mulch and yard waste. Plus get a tax credit and powerco credits/sellback.
3. Reduction heating and distillation gives you biochar and bio diesel. Which can then be used as fuel, soild amendments (the char), etc.

As far as selling it, maybe find the people who want it but don't want to drive a truck down to the county, and set up a delivery service?

 

[NewManRising]

As far as selling it, maybe find the people who want it but don't want to drive a truck down to the county, and set up a delivery service?

Take it a step further and offer to also apply it to their garden/property for them.

 

[Mr4213]

I've gotten tree companies to dump mulch on my property. Mostly I use it to compost and make new topsoil. I've used it (after a year or so) as garden soil, etc.

Things people can do with it:
* Of course, use as mulch.
* Compost for dirt, like I usually do.
* If you put it into a high efficiency burner, and/or a reduction atmosphere burner, there are a few neat things you can do with it. You can make these burners or buy them.
1. You can generate heat and pipe it through your house if it's cold. Add a thermocouple or two for some extra power harvesting.
2. Power a boiler and make electricity. I figured out I can make it cheaper than the power company sells it to me, fwiw, burning free mulch and yard waste. Plus get a tax credit and powerco credits/sellback.
3. Reduction heating and distillation gives you biochar and bio diesel. Which can then be used as fuel, soild amendments (the char), etc.

As far as selling it, maybe find the people who want it but don't want to drive a truck down to the county, and set up a delivery service?

Valuable reply. Thank you sir.

 

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[Trevor Kuntz]

I have noticed that my city gives away free mulch.

You simply pull up anytime you want, and they let you take as much as you want.

I am trying to come up with ideas for taking this free mulch and selling it somewhere else.

I wanted to see if you guys had any ideas about what I could do with free mulch.

Thank you

There is a very popular website called ChipDrop where people sign up for a tree chipping company to come out and drop an entire truckload of mulch in their driveway/yard for free.

It means free mulch for customers and cheaper disposal (after fuel and labor) for the tree chippers.

There are a few complaints about this service though:
1. Chip drops can be massive. Talking up to 6 tons of wood chips in one drop.
2. People in rural areas have a harder time getting "serviced"
3. Some mulch is more desirable than others. Mulch containing heavy pollen trees is not great, so if you can advertise the mulch as better, that would help you a lot
4. Moving the mulch is laborious and hazardous. Most chip mulch has tiny dust particulates that can get into peoples' lungs and ventilator masks are recommended.

Another service might be providing a mulch kit (shovel, gloves, masks, wheelbarrow, etc) for rent or as an upsell when delivering mulch