Vol. XIX No. 3
May/ June 2025
Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost & Firewood Producers www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com
NEWS
Attention Readers !
Are you looking for Products, Equipment or Services for your business? If so, check out these leading companies advertised inside:
Automatic Floor Systems Keith Manufacturing Co – pg 16 Bagging/Palletizing Equipment Amadas Industries – pg 4 Compost Turner Resource Machinery & Engineering – pg 18 Conveyors & Conveyor Parts Amadas Industries – pg 4 Equipment Sales GrinderTrader.com – pg 5 Grinders, Chippers & Screening Systems Amadas Industries – pg 4 HogZilla – pg 12 Orbit Screens – pg 18 Rawlings Manufacturing – 3 Rotochopper – pg 15 Vermeer Corporation – 10 Viably – pg 19 Mulch Coloring Equipment/ Colorants AgriCoatings – pg 13 Amerimulch – pg 17 Britton Industries – pg 5 CMC – pg 7 Colorbiotics – pg 2 DragonWolf – pg 11 Faltech – pg 11 Milagro Rubber Inc – pg 14 T.H. Glennon Co – pg 20 Mulch Suppliers Ohio Mulch – pg 6 Payload Weighing & Measuring Systems Walz Scale – pg 9 Trailers Weaver Systems – pg 8 Trommel Brushes Power Brushes Inc – pg 5 Wear Parts ArmorHog – pg 5
Gaston Family of Companies:
A Growing Dynasty in the Sunshine State
L
By P.J. Heller
ittle did Bill Gaston know when he landed a summer job while in high school with a tree surgeon company that more than five decades later, he would still be in the industry. “The first couple of days at work, when I saw these guys climb trees, I knew immediately I could do it,” he recalls. “It was something I knew I could do. I couldn’t wait to get into the trees.” He eventually convinced his mother to co-sign a $1,200 note so he could purchase a pickup truck and begin working for himself. “I didn’t pick my career. My career picked me,” Gaston is fond of saying. From what he describes as “very humble beginnings,” he has created a family of companies – Gaston Tree Service, started in 1972; Gaston Tree Debris Recycling, a fullservice green waste removal company; and Gaston Soil and Mulch, which bagged more than 2.5 million bags the past year and is expected to more than double that amount this year. “Same pants, different pockets,” he says of the three businesses.
“The business model creates a closedloop system in which a customer’s trees can be removed, recycled, and returned to the landscape as mulch or soil, all under the Gaston umbrella,” explains Gaston, the founder and chief executive officer. The family-run company, which employs some 150 people, is headquartered in Gainesville, FL, and operates about a dozen sites throughout the state stretching from Jacksonville to Orlando to Tampa. The largest site is 65 acres, the smallest 10 acres. “We followed our nose,” Gaston says of the operations. “The first thing we did was start a tree service. The next thing we wanted to do was to get rid of the stuff, so we started recycling it. And out of that, we ended up making [mulch, soil and chip] products for beneficial use.” The Tree Debris Recycling business was the first permitted tree, yard, and land-clearing debris recycling center in Florida, notes Gaston’s brother, Levin, a company co-founder and chief operating officer. It was launched in 1985 after the state mandated that vegetation could no longer be dumped into landfills. Continued on page 3