For arborists and tree services
Drop Your Wood Chips Where Somebody Actually Wants Them
Clean chips are the carbon in every pile we build. Bring a full load to a partner farm in Harris, Fort Bend, or Montgomery County for $50, scheduled in advance, and it goes straight into compost instead of a landfill.
Most disposal pages are written by somebody who does not want your material. This one is the opposite. Wood chips are a feedstock we have to source continuously, and a tree crew that shows up with clean loads on a regular schedule is genuinely useful to us. The fee covers handling and keeps the drops scheduled rather than chaotic. The material is the reason.
Why we want them
Chips are not waste here, they are an ingredient
Chips are the carbon half of the recipe
Food waste is wet and nitrogen-rich. On its own it packs down, goes anaerobic, and smells like failure. Wood chips are the dry, porous, carbon-rich material that keeps air moving through a pile. A composting operation without a carbon supply is not a composting operation for very long.
A full load is worth more than a partial one
The fee is flat per load rather than by the yard, which means there is no reason to bring a half-empty truck. Fill it. The handling cost is roughly the same either way and the material is the point.
Clean loads are the whole game
One truck with plastic and trash mixed through it costs more to deal with than several clean loads are worth. That is why contamination is the one thing priced differently, and why loads are looked at on arrival.
What we take, and what we turn away
Accepted
- +Clean wood chips from tree work, chipped on site
- +Untreated woody material and brush
- +Leaf and yard trimmings mixed in with the chips
Not accepted
- −Treated, painted, or stained lumber
- −Pallets, construction debris, and dimensional lumber
- −Trash, plastic, bagged material, and landscape fabric
- −Root balls carrying heavy soil, rock, or concrete, unless cleared in advance
Loads are looked at on arrival. Incidental material is expected in tree work and is fine; trash and treated lumber are not.
How a drop works
- Call +1 713-822-3398 with your truck type and roughly when you want to come.
- You get a receiving farm and a time. Sites rotate depending on which one needs carbon.
- Bring the load. Flat $50 for a standard chipper truck; larger equipment is quoted when you schedule.
- If you are running clean loads regularly, ask about a standing slot. That arrangement is worth more to us than the fee.
Questions from tree crews
Where can a tree service dump wood chips near Houston?
OnFarmCompost receives clean wood chips at partner farms across Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery County. Drops are scheduled in advance by phone at +1 713-822-3398 rather than by turning up, because the receiving site depends on which farm needs carbon that week. The fee is $50 per load for clean chips.
Why charge $50 when other places take chips for free?
Because the honest trade is time, not disposal. Free sites exist, and if one is close to your job then it is the better deal and you should use it. What this is worth paying for is a nearer drop with a scheduled slot and a known answer at the gate, since an extra forty minutes of crew and truck costs more than the fee does. If the math does not work for a given job, it does not work.
What counts as one load?
A standard chipper truck. Larger equipment such as grapple trucks and roll-offs carries more material and takes more handling, so those are quoted when the drop is scheduled rather than charged at the same flat rate.
What happens if a load has contamination in it?
It gets looked at on arrival. A small amount of incidental material is normal in tree work and is not a problem. A load carrying trash, plastic, bagged debris, or treated lumber may be surcharged or turned away, because sorting it costs more than the material is worth. Saying so up front is fairer than discovering it at the gate.
Can chips be dropped without calling first?
No. Sites are working farms on private land, not a public transfer station with a scale house and posted hours. Scheduling confirms which farm is receiving, that someone is there, and that there is room for the load.
Is there a discount for regular drops?
Yes, and that is the arrangement worth having. A tree service that brings clean loads on a predictable schedule is worth more than the fee, because it turns carbon supply into something that can be planned around. Call +1 713-822-3398 and ask about a standing drop.
How much material do you actually need?
More than most receiving sites, for two separate reasons. Chips are the carbon in every pile, so that demand renews as fast as compost gets built. They also go down on the ground the trucks drive on, because a working field turns to mud in a Houston rain and a route that cannot be driven is a route that stops. That second use runs into the hundreds of yards by itself. None of that is a promise that a particular load gets taken on a particular day, which is what the scheduling call settles.
What about other bulk organic material, not wood chips?
Ask. Loads such as produce culls, spoiled dry goods, or a pallet run of expired flour have come up, and they are handled case by case rather than from a rate card, because volume, moisture, packaging, and how the material behaves in a pile all change the answer. Anything still in plastic or packaging has to be depackaged before it qualifies.
Does dropping material here require anything of the arborist?
Only a clean load and a scheduled time. Texas sorts composting operations into tiers by feedstock, and source-separated vegetative material and clean wood sit in the least regulated of them, but that classification belongs to the receiving site and is confirmed there. This is a general description rather than a determination for anyone else.