Apps Connect Tree Care Crews with Locals Seeking Free Wood Chips

By Patricia Chaudoin

Looking for a way to offload chips from your latest tree-trimming job, without the cost in time and fuel to drive to an approved dumping site? There’s an app for that!

Mark Russell, owner of 770-Arborist, a TCIA member company based in Canton, Georgia, has developed a free-mulch app (freemulch.abouttrees.com) – and the app also is free – that connects tree companies with local residents and property owners who want to take advantage of getting free wood chips. Essentially, the app kills two birds with one stone: tree services get a place near their jobsite to dump their load of chips, thus saving time and fuel costs, and homeowners get a source for mulch at no charge. 

Russell, an ISA-certified arborist, says his app is valuable because it uses GPS technology to pair up tree services with homeowners in their immediate working area who are looking for free wood chips. “If I have to drive nine miles one way across Atlanta, in heavy traffic, to dump this stuff at an approved landfi ll or recycling center, I’m wasting a lot of fuel – and these trucks guzzle a ton of diesel. So every time I use this app, I’ll bet it saves me $200 in fuel, dump fees, and lost productivity. I rarely drive more than four miles to dump, and that means a huge savings...

Read the rest of the March 2017 TCI Mag article