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