@RickCorey, Rick, I'm pretty comfortable with the chip that we get. A lot of it comes from a company that trims back the trees adjacent to overhead power lines in residential areas. It's pretty clean, no unusual stuff. Mrs brother occasionally works for an arborist and we get chip from them too. Most of that is from residential property where trees are being trimmed or taken down. If they're working in an area where there is poison ivy or something else noxious, they won't deliver that to us. We don't worry about herbicide since the majority of the green material comes from tree leaves . It helps to establish a relationship with the tree service company that's generating the chip. You're saving them time and money and most want you to be happy with what you're getting.
The chip we use in our garden sits for a year before we put it down. We only use recently chipped material for mulching around trees and for weed control not related to our garden.
We compost kitchen green waste, leaves, grass clippings, and green waste from the garden. I understand that Starbucks is a good source for coffee grounds. I don't know what their pick-up schedule might be.
