Just over an hour west of Los Angeles, in Oxnard, a material handling company is hard at work turning scrap branches and composted material into soil-enhancing products.
Agromin is celebrating 50 years in business in 2022 and has grown from tree trimming and turning that debris into mulch to processing more than 1 million tons of material annually.
The company now serves cities and jurisdictions from northern California to the Mexico border, processing their green waste, food waste, wood waste, and agricultural byproducts into premium soils, compost, and mulch which then goes to farmers, landscapers, and homeowners.
“We make over 200 custom soil blends for various needs,” said Dave Green, chief operating officer at Agromin. “The Super Bowl was recently in southern California, and we serviced SoFi Stadium, mulching and beautifying the grounds for that event.”
The team also prides themselves on being part of the solution in reducing or diverting emissions.
“We are on a mission to lessen the impacts of climate change,” said Green. “We collect and process materials that would otherwise be in landfills creating greenhouse gasses, and we transform them into compost and mulch to put that carbon and methane into the soil instead of the air. This also saves water, supports better yields, and makes farmers less dependent on fertilizers.”
Another part of the process where Agromin is working to reduce their carbon footprint is their equipment. The team felt their older equipment was using too much diesel, which runs counter to their sustainability goals and their place as a leader in a largely green industry.
“Agromin called me, fed up with their current machine provider’s poor service and fuel efficiency,” said Craig Harrison, Agromin’s Volvo Construction Equipment outside sales rep. “We discussed their needs and the fact that they like to try equipment before buying, so we set them up with a rental purchase agreement for Volvo wheel loaders and an excavator that gave them six months to check things out.”
Agromin was under no obligation to buy the machines, but they did so at the end of the six months.
“This is my twenty-third year with Agromin, so I’ve seen and tried all the brands of wheel loaders and excavators,” said Green. “In terms of price, uptime, and the customer care we’ve had with Volvo, we don’t need to try anything else.”
