Wood fiber is a valuable resource, and increasingly, wood pallet recyclers are looking for value-added byproducts to produce with wood waste, including wood pellets, wood chips, and also, landscaping mulch.
Mulch is highly prized by landscapers for a number of reasons, including aesthetic, as well as weed control and moisture retention. While natural mulch is manufactured from bark, wood recyclers make landscaping mulch from old pallets and other wood waste. Colored mulch can be described as a ground wood product, usually scrap wood or recycled wood, that is colored with iron oxide or carbon-based pigment dispersions to attain a uniform, attractive, long-lasting appearance. An important consideration is compatible particle size, which speaks to the need of having a good quality grinding and screening system, which helps regulate the sizing of the finished product.
The coloring system can be a separate system, such as that offered by Amerimulch, or it can be built into the wood grinder system. Such an approach is offered by Rotochopper. Mulch colorant systems accept mulch, typically through a hopper, which is introduced to colorant in the mixing chamber, providing overall particle surface exposure to the colorant.Retail or Wholesale Market
While mulch is often sold in bulk form to landscaping companies and other bulk much providers, it can also be bagged with bagging equipment, to generate significantly greater value, albeit in lower volume. This bagged product is sold be local garden centers and home improvement retailers.
According to research by Amerimulch, a local retail market might be expected to be between 2,000 and 5,000 yards annually, while the wholesale or bulk market can be expected to be in the 10,000 to 120,000 yard range.
Customer Concerns About Colored Mulch
Safety Coloring system suppliers such as Amerimulch use only safe and environmentally friendly materials in its colorants, which says that consumers and landscapers should have no special worries about handling colored mulches any differently than they handle regular mulches.
Harmful to plants Colored mulch does not harm plants in landscaping applications.
Driveway staining If colored mulch is dumped on your driveway, it is a good idea to put down a tarp or wet the driveway with a hose first, so that no colorant dries onto the driveway.
Do colors wash off? Once applied the color is locked after it dries, just as fence stain is locked after it dries.
Case Studies
St. Boniface Pallet Company One Canadian pallet manufacturer and recycler that has recently entered the retail landscaping mulch market is St. Boniface Pallet Comapny of Manitoba. It has developed a branded line of colored landscape mulch called Enviro Mulch Wood Chips, which it offers in bulk. According to St. Boniface Pallet, Enviro Mulch is a long-lasting mulch designed to enhance and protect any landscape. With a variety of colors available, St. Boniface Pallet hopes the new product will not only help homeowners and landscapers, but the environment as well.
“It is an easy way to add beauty to any natural setting,” a company representative said in a recent release. “Enviro Mulch will enhance landscapes allowing you to bring exciting new dimensions of color and creativity to yards and gardens.” The company also offers free firewood pickup.
C. J. Sheeran This Irish company has developed a branded colored mulch product known as Second Harvest, which it offers in both bagged form as well as in bulk quantities. It notes that all mulch is manufactured from pallet and packaging waste wood that would otherwise be destined to go to landfills. In terms of mulch colorants, the company employs Mulch Magic® produced by Colorbiotics, a division of Becker Underwood Ltd.
