Pruning Waste Disposal for Tree Services: Renting a Chipper vs Hauling Brush to a Landfill

What to take away

What is being compared

This article compares two pruning waste disposal options tree service crews use: renting a chipper and hauling brush to a landfill. A rented chipper turns brush into chips on site. A hauling route takes whole brush to a county landfill or transfer station. Both paths require the crew to gather limbs, stack them, and load a machine or truck. The choice changes labor hours, equipment cost, and the final location of the waste. A drum or disc machine rated for 6 to 12 inch material can reduce one pickup load of brush to a few yards of chips. That reduction matters when landfill distance is long.

The criteria that matter

Cost is not the only axis. The table below sets the two options against criteria a tree service can apply to a specific job.

Use your crew's productivity rates to estimate daily brush volume before choosing. A chipper can cut volume by 8 to 10 times, but it requires training and a clear work zone.

Option by option

Renting a chipper. For a 6 to 12 inch chipper, a day rate of $200 to $400 is common, plus fuel and delivery. That range is illustrative, not a quote. Chips can be spread as mulch, used for erosion control, or given to a local wood recycler. This option reduces trips to the landfill. A chipper is heavy tree service equipment, and renting shifts maintenance to the rental yard. But it requires a trained operator and a clear work zone.

Hauling brush to a landfill uses a brush trailer or chip truck to carry whole brush. The work is simple: cut, stack, load, drive, unload. Tipping fees apply per ton or cubic yard, and many landfills charge a minimum.

Some counties have green waste drop-off sites with lower fees than mixed waste. This option needs no special equipment beyond the truck and trailer, but a busy crew may make two or three trips per day.

Where each one wins

Renting a chipper is the right answer when the crew fills a truck more than twice in a day. It also wins when the nearest landfill is more than 20 miles away, because the reduction in trips saves fuel and labor. Clean chips can be sold to landscapers or given to customers as mulch, which turns a disposal cost into a small benefit.

Haul brush when the job is small, under one full truckload, and the landfill is within 10 miles. It also fits crews without chipper experience or sites with narrow driveways where a chipper will not fit.

If the landfill charges under $50 per ton for green waste, hauling can cost less than renting. Add disposal cost as a line item when you set up tree service pricing. It can swing a $500 job by 10 percent.

What none of them solve

Neither option removes the need to move brush from the tree to a collection point. Both require handling the same limbs at least twice. Rain can delay both chipping and hauling, and neither path works well if the brush is contaminated with soil or wire. Clean pruning cuts under ANSI A300 Pruning Standards reduce the risk of leaving diseased wood in the brush pile, but the waste still has to go somewhere. A shared limit is that both options depend on a truck or trailer rated for the load. Overloading a truck is a fine waiting to happen.

Example: one day of brush from a pruning crew

A crew prunes six medium oaks and produces 4 cubic yards of brush. That is roughly two pickup truck loads. Renting a 9 inch chipper costs $300 for the day. The resulting chips are under 1 cubic yard and can stay on site as mulch. Hauling the same brush to a landfill 15 miles away means two round trips, an hour of driving, and a tipping fee of $60 per ton. If the brush weighs 1 ton, the direct disposal cost is $60, plus fuel and labor for the second trip. The chipper wins on time and return, but only if the crew has a trained feeder.

Common questions