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POWER P.~RTNERSF[~ TREE TRIMMINGS BOOST A MUL~N BUSINESS ~ OT LONG AGO, all Jackie htusch was trying to do was make enough mulch to sell at her newlyopened garden cen• ter. Today, she menages Rain• bow Farms, a mulch manufae•~ taring business in the Chicago area that includes 24 transfer sites and six processing areas. The business just kind of evolved; she says matter•of-fectly. In 1994, bfuach started up a garden cen- ter in bfoaee, Illinois, es an adjunct business to her husband Jim a landscaping enter- prise; Dutch Valley Landscaping, inc. As with most garden centers, part of the prod- uctline wav mulch, which Jackie began pio- dueing from chipped woody material she took in from area tree trimming firms. Although it was started as a sideline, Rainbow Farms' mulch tininess soon took center stage.'\Ve found that there way more . money in mulch than in the other things we . were selling at the center,' she explain. To- day, the garden center v a brief part of the company's history. As the business grew, many of biusch's prinripal feedstock suppliers were subma- tractorsthat trimmed trees along the power lines of ComEd, the area's electricity provider. ComEd took notice of how the ar- rangement worked, and began discussion with hluseh about the possibility of accept- ing additional material from its other sub- matraetors. In 1997, Rainbow Farms signed a contract with ComEd for•the exclusive. rights to all the chipped tree trimming suape generated in the Chicago area. MRD~I ~ETMO!! The relationship with ComEd meant Rainbow Farms had to develop additional processing capability beyond whet was available at its Monersite. Because ComEd'e servitt area is so Large, a network of tranfer Bites and processing sites was needed to cover it adequately. 'One of the keys to making this work w$s to provide mn- venient sites for the subeontractoro to dump; Musth says. There is a real savings - to the crews because tramportation costs are reduced.' Since CamEd controls a large number oC facilities in the area, the drop Bites were lo- cared on iv property, typically at strategi• . tally-located substations. Currently, there ere 24 trensfer station where the chipped woody material from the aubrnntractore can be dumped. The transfer sites, tronsiat of concrete bunkers that are capable of hold- ing up to 600 cY of chipped material. Al- though most of these sites are used exclu- sively for material troming from ComEd'e crews, some ere used by local landscapers who also contract with Rainbow Farms. When that occurs, the contractors uses f Based on ~#s contract with an electric company, Rainbow Farms receives the feedsfork it needs to supply customers. lim Glenn their own bunker. In addition to a transfer points, ComEd also provided Rainbow Farms with apace et five of its other facilities for processing sites. A sixth site is located et the Rainbow Farms headquarters in htonee. The material from the trensfer points is moved to the closest processing facility via walking Moor tramfer trailer. Rainbow Farms contracts thv trans- porting function to two companies. Rathei than have s loader available at each site, Jim Musc6 designed a system that is used to haul a loader on the trailer. Each of the processing sites vary in siu from 11/2 to 21/2 acres. Each has an area that provides for all-weather access for the trailers. When the chipped material is brought into a prccessing site it is put into 15 foot high windrows, In dry weather, the transfer vehicles dump directly into the windrows. In bed weather, the trailers dump et the unloading area and a tracked loader v used to form the rows. Z8 B+oCYcrx Oc~oeoe 1998