MOWING: The Great Debate

When it comes to clippings, Matthew Schattner has worst, better and best case scenarios.
 
The owner of Kansasville, Wis.-based Mat’z Snow & Lawn prefers to double cut his clients’ lawns because it’s time efficient and not labor intensive. His second choice is to mulch the clippings, which is often difficult on thick, Wisconsin turf and takes twice as long. Schattner’s third option – his worst-case scenario – is simply to bag and haul, a method he’d rather avoid. “We had one client whose lawn we bagged with every cut last season,” he says. “Of course, we charged him extra for the time involved to go slower and dump the bagger frequently. I really try to avoid these accounts, but if they’re willing to pay…”
 
Like Schattner, landscape contractors must determine their clippings collection and removal strategy before the first lawn can be mowed. As a rule, most contractors opt for a light-on-labor method that leaves a client’s lawn looking neat and professional. As with any service, clients have different preferences and there’s always an exception to the rule.   

Fortunately, contractors have options when dealing with lawn clippings. “If there was ever a collection device that saved time and added value to my services, I’d definitely pursue it,” says Chris Rubottom, owner of Vista Landscape Solutions in Tallahassee, Fla. “Especially if it didn’t involve stopping repeatedly throughout a job and hauling away debris.” 

MORE TO MULCH. Initially, Rubottom collected clippings in his riding mower’s bag attachment, but found it cumbersome to stop and empty the bag multiple times during the same job. “Particularly when there were leaves on the ground we’d have to stop every two to three rows to empty the bag,” he says. “Then we’d either have to get permission from the homeowner to leave the bags on the curb or haul them off ourselves and dump them someplace.”
 
Rubottom now chooses to mulch his clippings back into the lawn, which saves 30 to 40 minutes per job. For $100 to $200 each, he purchased mulching kits that attach to his commercial zero-turn and walk-behind mowers. “In general, we’ve been just as successful mulching as we were bagging,” Rubottom says. “We can leave the job site just as clean.”
 
Most clients are content with Rubottom’s mulching policy, and consider the clippings extra fertilization (see Mulching Advantages, page 60). On the rare occasion a client prefers the clippings to be bagged, Rubottom’s crews hand rake the clippings and haul them away. This results in an extra charge of $50 to $100, depending on the weight and size of the load. “We try to avoid this extra work,” he says.
 
Andy Carlucci, owner of AC Lawn & Landscape, Point Pleasant, N.J., also chooses to mulch clippings back into his clients’ lawns. “We decided to mulch because of the time involved in collecting and dumping the clippings, plus the investment to dispose of them legally,” Carlucci says. “Mulching saves us a lot of time and money.”
 
For Carlucci, the biggest costs associated with clippings disposal are the manpower to bag them and the fuel cost to make the 45-minute round trip to the nearest landfill. The landfill disposal fee can also add up, starting around $50 per ton. “Everyone knows what the cost of gas is right now,” he says. “We just can’t recoup those costs.”
 
New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection is very strict when it comes to clippings disposal because of the potent smell and chemical residue, which limits Carlucci’s options and reiterates why he chooses to mulch. Contractors should check with their states’ departments of environmental protection about similar regulations.
 
While Carlucci sells most of his clients on the idea that clippings are beneficial to the soil, some still prefer the tidy appearance of a clippings-free lawn. If potential clients want their clippings collected, Carlucci usually refers them to another company. “Mostly it’s the higher-end clients who want clippings removed because they don’t want them in their beds or tracked into their homes,” he says. “We make sure homeowners are aware we don’t collect clippings and, unfortunately, some do not sign contracts with us if this is a service they want.”
 
As part of a routine mowing and maintenance job, Carlucci’s crews make sure to blow clippings away from walkways, decks, driveways and mulch beds. This extra service takes four to six minutes and leaves homes looking as neat as if the clippings had been collected. “Even our current high-end clients are OK with us not collecting their clippings because they see we are just as neat as the house next door that has its clippings bagged,” he says. “Eventually I think every landscape company will mulch its clippings as it gets harder and harder to find places to dump them.” 

DOUBLE CUTTING. Schattner collects clippings only during fall cleanups. All other times he double cuts his clients lawns, which is more effective than mulching his region’s thick turf, he says. His mulcher is attached to a 48-inch walk-behind mower, which he doesn’t consider to be his “fastest or most efficient machine by far,” but says is good for tight spaces. “For us, mulching is really only an option once we get through spring,” Schattner says. “Otherwise, the grass is so thick a mulcher basically just makes things more difficult.”
 
When he does collect clippings, Schattner hauls the debris to his father’s 80-acre farm, where it serves as fertilizer. “This is an environmentally correct method of disposal, and my dad’s farm is only about 20 minutes away from our furthest customer,” he says. “There are many farmers out there who, if approached in the correct manner, would go along with having organic matter brought to them for free.”

Schattner charges three times the cost of a regular mowing job to haul clippings away, with bagging and hauling costs each comprising 1/3 of the final fee. This “rule of thumb” also serves as a rough estimate for the company’s leaf collecting services.

A BIT OF BOTH. Benjamin Elliott, president and CEO of Oak Hill Landscape Group in Atlanta, says about 80 percent of his clients’ lawns are mulched and the other 20 percent are bagged. Fortunately, most of these sites are large five- to six-acre properties that allow disposal of the clippings near the back of the lot, which cuts down on labor and fuel costs, he says.
 
Elliott disposes the remaining clippings at his shop. He sometimes rents a 30-yard Dumpster for about $340 a month and $60 to $70 for each additional month to keep on site. Once it’s full, the Dumpster supplier hauls it away and leaves an empty one. Other times, to reduce his monthly dump bin costs, he creates an on-site compost pile and rents a Dumpster only when he has enough debris to fill it. Elliot fills his dump bins four or five times a year.

“If you have space at your shop, I recommend keeping your clippings there and, when it’s worthwhile, call a Dumpster company to come in and haul them away,” Elliot says. “If it’s a few months before you can fill a dump bin, make a green space or a compost pile in the meantime.”
 
Elliott has tried many disposal methods over the years. He used to take his clippings to his parent’s lot and burn them, but Atlanta’s burn bans as result of the region’s drought have eliminated this option.
 
He also used to take his clippings to the county dump where he paid about $100 per load, plus about 2½ extra working hours per employee to make the trip. When an independent company acquired the dump and tripled the fees, Elliott needed to find an alternative.
 
“Smaller landscape companies without a shop may have no other alternative than the county dump,” he says. “But disposing of clippings at our shop cuts down on labor, gas costs and dumping fees.”
 
No matter where he disposes of them, Elliott charges his clients for the extra time and effort. While he has no set cost, he factors in the cost of bags, the time to haul them off the trucks and into the Dumpster, how much room the debris will take up, the cost of the Dumpster and how much debris a client accumulates over time. “The cost largely depends on how big the property is and how much debris is produced,” Elliott says. “A client we serve every week will produce many more clippings than a client we visit only seasonally.”