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What do you do with your clippings?

What do you do with all your clippings?

22K views 54 replies 36 participants last post by  Service.com 
#1 ·
If u haul away please state where u put them (i.e. barrels in bed of truck, barrels on trailer, dump body, etc.)
 
#2 ·
I bag and haul away, I normally put them in my trailer
 
#4 ·
Discharge or haul away.
 
#5 ·
We use big tarp bags and fill them with grass and load the truck with them.
 
#8 ·
Within this decade the practice of grass clipping removal by professionals & homeowners alike will come to an abrupt halt...
AND/OR​

...there will be giant strides in the fledgeling bioconversion industry towards lowering the costs of converting such materials into useable fuel forms, such as pellets for wood stoves.
 
#9 ·
blake when we had pickups we just sucked it up and when we had to dump it got the pitch forks out at the end of the day. it sucked but it works.
yea i was thinkin i would build a box for the bed and make it structurally strong so that i can pick it up somehow at the end of the day, just so i can switch from work to personal truck quickly. im not sure yet. thanks for the responses guys.
 
#10 ·
good luck picking up a bed full of wet grass clippings.
 
#11 ·
I use a dumpbed truck. Yes I think you are underestimating the weight of grass clippings. Granted my bed is larger than a std. 8' truck bed but I have had 3,500lbs of GRASS in the bed, in one day, sometimes not even a full day, and sometimes I can fill the bed in one stop at a HOA.

Point is, you aren't going to be dragging a tarp out or lifting a "box" out by hand if the bed is more than 1/2 full, and that's not much grass.

I know of some that use plastic 55 gallon barrels, but those really get to heavy to lift safely when full of grass.

The load handler is a good option for a std. 8' truck bed though. I used one for several years, and still have the first one I bought. It dosn't get everything out but it gets 90% of it, though sometimes you may have to really work at it to get it to roll up!
 
#13 ·
blake when we had pickups we just sucked it up and when we had to dump it got the pitch forks out at the end of the day. it sucked but it works.
I did that for about 6 months this last summer. (it sucks bad) I purchased what is called an "EZ loader" it is NICE!! it attaches to your tailgate and removal is a breeze. load capacity is 1500-2000 LBS. thats the best way to go in my opinion.
 
#14 ·
I do bag some yards depending on the length of the grass and if the customer asked for it. I have a 6ft bed on my truck with a plastic bed liner. I would lay a tarp over the bed with it hanging off the sides, and fill the bed with clippings then cover them up with the additional tarp. At the end of the day, me and one or two other workers would be able to slide the tarp out of the bed. If it was a day where we had a lot of clippings, we would normally need to push some clippings over the side before we could slide the tarp out. It's a pain but it works. We've discovered its easier just to mulch though.

Oh, and I just remembered... make sure that if you use this method not to pile any clippings behind the wheel humps in the bed. If there are too many piled back there, you'll never get the tarp off.
 
#17 ·
If I bag I have some customers that have a place onsite to dump the clippings and some I have to haul away. If I haul away, I bring them to my uncle's farm and put them in the compost piles.

I'm trying more and more to get people to allow me to discharge or mulch, but there are too many stubborn people here who think that it is better to bag and discharging or mulching isn't good. They don't understand that a $10,000+ commercial mower will perform better than their $1000 home crapsman.
 
#19 ·
How do you guys load the clippings into the truck/trailer? By hand? Tarp? Can? Do you use a truck loader? Would you use a mini truck loader? Would it be helpful to be able to suck it out of the truck as when you need to unload it?
Remove the bag off the catcher and lift it into the truck, dump, repeat. On the walker I pull the bin out of the hopper, lift into the truck, dump, repeat.

That's why I don't understand the dump on the ground hoppers... they don't work if you load clippings in a truck. and the big barrels are too heavy for one person to lift, at least safely.
 
#20 ·
We bag the lawns and use dump trucks. I have two local farms that are happy to get grass clippings. It gets a little harder with leaves because I dump so many in the spring and fall so they usually cut me off at some point. I also pay $500 per year to dump at the place I get my mulch and loam. They let me dump as much brush, grass and leaves as I want. That is dirt cheap for a dump pass. Only trouble is that its a little off the beaten path for me but its the only place I can get rid of brush/concrete/asphault/fill etc.
 
#21 ·
I do bag some yards depending on the length of the grass and if the customer asked for it. I have a 6ft bed on my truck with a plastic bed liner. I would lay a tarp over the bed with it hanging off the sides, and fill the bed with clippings then cover them up with the additional tarp. At the end of the day, me and one or two other workers would be able to slide the tarp out of the bed. If it was a day where we had a lot of clippings, we would normally need to push some clippings over the side before we could slide the tarp out. It's a pain but it works. We've discovered its easier just to mulch though.

Oh, and I just remembered... make sure that if you use this method not to pile any clippings behind the wheel humps in the bed. If there are too many piled back there, you'll never get the tarp off.
I did that for years. Please dont remind me. Best way to do it if you dont have a dump
 
#24 ·
I said this on another thread somewhere on lawnsite, but I feel it may help SOME LCO's decide, or get their customers to ALLOW them to leave the clippings:

MOWING:
Cutting grass high allows it to shade its own roots, conserve moisture and keep out weeds. If the grass doesn't shade the weed, the weed will shade the grass. Sun is food. Food is strength and life. Shade is weakness, disease and death. Grass will shade the weeds only if it is tall enough. The shade of tall, dense grass turf will prevent essential light from reaching most weeds and, will aid in the destruction of new baby weed seedlings (such as the notorious dandelion).

MYTH: "If I mow short, it will be longer until I have to mow again." False! Your grass needs grass blades to do photosynthesis (convert sunshine into sugar) to feed the roots. When you whack the blades off, the grass has to grow amazingly fast to make more blades to make sugar. This fast growth uses up a lot of the grass's stored sugar, and weakens the plant. It is now vulnerable to disease and pests! Tall grass is healthier and can use the extra sugar to make rhizomes (more grass plants) thus thickening the turf.

Mowing higher has the following benefits:

more shade to the soil leads to less watering
deeper roots which leads to less watering
thicker turf which leads to fewer weeds
slower growth which leads to less mowing


GRASS CLIPPINGS: -provide nitrogen and reduce the amount of fertilizer needed.

Grass clippings in moderation should be left on the lawn. When they breakdown with the help of micro-organisms in the soil, they feed soil organisms, recycle plant nutrients, and contribute organic matter to the soil, making your lawn healthier, and a beautiful green! As a result, water is conserved and less fertilizer is needed.

A mulching mower or blade kit can help with this process promoting faster decomposition.

And as for fert guys using chemicals instead of organics. The chems are killing all the micro-organisms that help to decompose the grass clippings, so basically you have dead soil, that is DEPENDANT on the chems to feed it to sustain the lawn, so you will build up thatch. That lawn is a victim of a vicious cycle of chemicals.

I would ONLY bag occasionally, when you have a extra amount of clippings due to extra growth.

Grass clippings have been banned from landfills by approximately half of the states in the United States.

As they decompose in landfills, the nutrients they contain are not only wasted, but the chemical pesticides also contribute to landfill leachate and groundwater contamination.

Grass clippings typically comprise 10 to 20 percent of the solid waste in landfills collected by communities on a year-round basis.
During the summer months, grass clippings can account for nearly half the weight of the waste collected in some communities!
Curbside collection of grass clippings increases trash, handling, and hauling costs, while burying grass clippings reduces available landfill space.
 
#26 ·
I bag all of my lawns, I empty the lawn mower bags into the bed of my truck which is lined with a heavy duty tarp. At the end of each day we head to the local dump and for $3 a time we empty the truck. I actually take pride in the way I empty the truck, after watching countless other companies take an hour to empty their truck I can pull up drop the tailgate, me and another employee grab the corners of the tarp and heave ho! We dump the grass, grab the tarp, while the other employee uses a blower to make sure the bed is free of all grass. Hop in the truck that is still running and we drive away. It amazes me how long it takes some of those companies to get rid of their waste. The time you use to dump your clippings is time that you won't be earning any income, it is essentially downtime. Don't let it be a deterant to your business.
 
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