I am running a stump dump and grinding the material into double ground mulch. I am going to have way more mulch than I can sell locally. What are some ways to get rid of the mulch and make money? I am essentially getting the mulch for free. But if I don't sell it and make some money then I am just breaking even....my profit lies in the mulch sales.
What is your expectation of price per yard? What's the quality of mulch? But might Try contacting landscapers outside of your area and try wheel a deal...but let them deal with trucking as this $$
I sold about 500 yds at about $20/yd. But that was before the stump dump took off. If I could move the stuff as fast as it came in I would settle for 10/yd. Its good mulch for the average joe, but there are a lot of highend homes here and the local landscapers prefer finer material. I will probably try triple grinding some this coming spring and see how it sells. My biggest problem is my yard is small and I will sell very little between now and next spring. I need the space. I was hoping there was another avenue for this stuff...like wood chip boilers?
I don't know much about the industry but it's one I would like to get into one day. We have a problem getting rid of green waste in our area and I see a market opportunity, it's just I am on the producing side looking for a place to dispose of it. The high cost of entry (grinder) has kept me away. The local clearing/grinding contractors ship most of the chips for boiler fuel to paper/plywood mills. There is a recycling yard close to my shop that takes green waste, pallets, etc from contractors, individuals and municipalities. As far as I know they don't produce mulch, it is loaded in semi trailers and I can only guess, sent for boiler fuel. Is your electricity generator using biomass in their power plants? If so that would be an avenue to get rid of your chips.
i can tell you here in Miami mulch like that is free. they have to give it away because there is just so much of it. now if the finer higher quality stuff and its dyed thats a different story
Any co-gen plants nearby? Could try selling it to them.
paper mill Local paper mill just said they would give me 16/ton...
This is a subject I've had discussion with some of the local mills, their spin on it is this, if you can color it, then you have a market and people will pay top dollar, but their not sure it pays in the end, next is for the landscapers and such, if they are not using it now, its a hard sell to create a market that doesn't already exist. Talk to schools and see if they want some for playgrounds for kids, not sure if you have anything there that's not hard surfaced or not, but around here its a big deal. Next is to sell to those that want to sell small loads to the individual, those are hard to find and keep happy, and if you have to sell to a mill or go gen, your slightly above break even and you need volume to make a buck. As for stump grindings a lot of places won't take it because its got too much dirt in it. I'm not sure if you have the grinder or a chipper or exactly what you have, but there are some that go around and grind for the cities, their waste disposal sites and yard clippings things are big in my area, then the city hires someone to come in and grind it all up, and then its free to anyone in the city to come get it, that's why its hard to sell mulch in my area, the cities have killed that market completely trying to solve their own disposal problems. I don't know what is done in your area or not, but before you investigate too much, find out where people get mulch from now, or if you wanted some where would you have to go to get it, every area is different, some area's don't use mulch, its just not done or wanted. Next is, charge a fee to dump the stuff, then your ahead of the game completely, if your charging some now, see what people will pay to dispose of it, in my area they won' pay anything, the city will take it for free, and the mulch is free to them to go get. Before investing in big dollars, do a lot of research on the subject first, or your going to have high dollar equipment sitting or running for break even at best. I know of a half dozen guys with equipment that's paid for that can't turn a buck with the equipment, their market dried up with the cities decisions to give away the mulch. Those guys were forced to buy the colorization to attract a buyer to even consider their product, now those are a dime a dozen and no longer in demand either, everyone is doing that too, its a very hard market to predict and keep profitable year in and year out. If you have to truck it very far, your going to eat up any profit there was, your better off not taking the product in the first place, or else charge a fee for those dumping it, to help out the trucking on your finished product to get it to its market, but your not going to truck it hundreds of miles, that I can assure you, narrow down your search to much closer to your home area, less than a 100 miles I'd say. Next is are there any livestock producers in your area, chickens, turkey's, dairy, horses, anything like that, if so, maybe wait till its dry and grind it then and sell it as bedding, those take it by the semi load and will pay a descent price for it most times, but you need to consider your end user there, horse people want bright dry clean mulch, same for chicken and turkey, no dirt what so ever. There is one guy here that takes all the dry wood from the cabinet and manufacturing shops and sells it after grinding it, strictly for bedding, he's doing great, but he knows what each customer wants and he only sells by the semi load and has his mulch sorted and ground according to the customer end user, one type of mulch gets ground into one shed and another goes to another shed, and then its loaded out according to quality of mulch. Livestock producers will pay the most, next is the home owner if they can't get it for free, but that's not volume, then the landscaper and the lowest paying of all, is the co-gen or heating places, they buy in volume and know their costs to the penny, the others its more of a want/need and not a cost thing at all. Lastly contact green houses, see if they have a need for it, plant people will do a lot of things you'd not think about or know about, similar to the homeowner. But before jumping in big guns, find out who's already doing it, what your market is, who your customers are going to be, and when it turns sour, who else you can sell to, what your going to do is about the highest risk thing out there, mainly due to the costs and also the customer base that changes so fast on other sources you have no control over, like for example cites decisions one year to give away mulch where they'd never done it before, it a very highly volatile market I guess you could say. Best of luck, not sure I helped you at all.
Building on Randy88's great comments, Stables can be a major market for wood products...for bedding they may want wood chips but also corrals and show rings can be a destination. Advantage is that generally want large truckloads at a time. A huge portion of wood pellets/chips go to these places here in Canada. If it is stumps mixed with bark we're dealing with what we call hog fuel and is consummed by pretty much only the few co-gen plants. From what I've heard they are unfortunately breaking even on the trucking costs unless you've got a short haul. Good news is co-gen plants have changed a bunch in recent years so many are small/built into existing facilities which means we don't think of them as much. If you've got clean wood then you've got more options - wood chips/pulp mills etc. Check for alternate manufactures...got a wood pellet mill nearby? might be looking for a new source and they use wood fragments as opposed to logs. Ask your local agriculture reps...I've seen farmers use wood chips as a means of adding some nutrients back into the soil especially when dealing with heavy clays. They're not going to be pay much but it's a source for disposal if your yard starts overflowing/need to cycle inventory. Municipalities sometimes have wierd needs...be it landscaping or construction and may be looking for some larger amounts of mulch for something like the city parks and not willing to pay premium amounts for the fancy colored stuff. Disaster companies...have seen mulch/wood chips used for creating temporary access on soft sites, camp sites in a swamp, and spill clean-up efforts. A bed of wood mulch may be enough to allow the trucks to get to the site without building an all season road. Lots of uses but cost and local market will depend on what you can do. All I can recomend is look at industries most folks wouldn't consider as you have potential to price as a sole source and diversify.
increase the dump fee on the green waste until you can sell or give away the grindings so you don't inventory any and end up with a profit from the dump fee. there are many products we all consume which people pay to get rid of, one example I spent time computing was bagged manure from home depot, you pay a dollar/40lb bag at this price you can't bag it and haul it for that much therefore the only explanation is the feed lots and dairies pays someone to take it. another one I have done personally is recycled concrete it costs 2-3x's as much to process evenly graded 2' minus basalt as it does typically large pieces of 2' minus concrete therefore I charged to receive concrete in the small quarry I was in charge of....TIO
I work for a mulch producer and compost facility double ground dYed and triple Ground dyed but a really good seller is double ground mulch with compost let that age and mix it all up making a nice dark brown naturally aNd it will sell