From the Earth and Back

In 1978, Jeff Hansen had completed a plumbing apprenticeship, but the economy then, like now, made finding a good job tough.

"I didn't want to starve to death," he says.

Hansen took a job driving a trash truck during the week, but with a young family at home, that job soon wasn't cutting it. So Hansen started helping his uncle with his "little-bitty tree service" on weekends to make ends meet.

By 1988, he was in the tree-service business full-time.

Since then, Hansen's Tree Service has grown from that little-bitty operation in O'Fallon near St. Louis to a major player in the state's tree-care industry.

Hansen's expanded to Reeds Spring in May 2006. The idea sprouted while Hansen was building a house in Kimberling City.

"I started looking around at what types of tree businesses were down there," he says, adding that he first asked his wife if she'd mind that he opened another shop.

"She said, 'Do you really think it's going to do any good if I tell you no?'" he recalls with a laugh.

When a crippling ice storm hit the Ozarks in January 2007, business was brisk, but something about the cleanup in the aftermath bothered Hansen.

"Seventeen million dollars left the Springfield area or went up in smoke," Hansen says. The money went to out-of-state contractors, he says, and tree waste that could have been used for mulch or compost was simply burned.

"I had a problem with that. I saw a lot of opportunities there," he says. "It's just kind of exploded."

Since 2007, Hansen's has opened four green-waste recycling facilities in the Ozarks: in Brookline, Ozark, Hollister and Reeds Spring. The Reeds Spring office also sells finished compost and mulch, which is certified by the U.S. Composting Council. By spring, Hansen hopes to add Hansen's Tree Service retail locations in Brookline and Ozark.

The local green-waste recycling effort came about after Hansen had several discussions with Leo Journagan Construction Co., says Perry Schneider, Journagan's director of safety and environment. Hansen wanted to use some land at Journagan's quarries to take in green waste and transform it into compost and mulch. It was an arrangement that had proven successful with Fred Weber Inc. in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

The idea was appealing to Journagan for a variety of reasons, Schneider says, not the least of which was to help the communities around the company's quarries see its efforts to be environmentally responsible.

"Most quarry facilities - not just Journagan - have a black eye against them to start with (in) the community," Schneider adds, pointing to the unsightly nature of quarries and the subsequent traffic and congestion. "Nobody wants them in their backyard. Even though everyone wants aggregate, concrete and lime ... no one wants a quarry next door to them."

The company agreed to let Hansen's use some acreage at three properties owned by Journagan: the quarries in Ozark and Hollister and some undeveloped land near Brookline.

"It's not a moneymaker for us - more of a greener image is what we were after," Schneider says. "We're trying to show the community that we're a little more green-oriented than they think."

In exchange, Hansen's helps Journagan promote the fact that the highway contractor takes in construction waste such as shingles and porcelain to recycle into aggregate.

Hansen's accepts green waste, including logs, brush, leaves, clippings, pallets and crates, and collects animal waste from Dixie Stampede and Sight & Sound theaters in Branson. Hansen's grinds the castoffs and mixes them. From there, nature does its work.

The mixtures are tested every couple of weeks to ensure the proper chemical balance is achieved. After a few months, the product is ready to be sold.

The recycling component of Hansen's already accounts for about 20 percent of its business, Hansen says.

George Pezold joined Hansen's three months ago as its market development manager for the company's recycling division.

"We were taking in next to nothing when I first started," Pezold says.

Hansen now is talking about hiring more employees, especially to help when the two new retail operations get off the ground.

"We'll definitely have to add three or four (employees) by spring," Hansen says.[[In-content Ad]]