Ryan Crownholm doesn’t play in the dirt. He trades it.
His new service matches people who need dirt to those who want to remove it from their property. DirtMatch.com offers a simple solution to a problem that large construction companies often have – finding a place to dump good soil.
A recent press release states that DirtMatch.com is “committed to the environment, with a green mission to recycle instead of waste. Rather than taking any extra soil to a landfill, our mission is to get it to someone who needs it.”
Crownholm suggests that the current method of soil exchange is wasteful and unreliable. His business, Dig & Demo focused on the removal of residential swimming pools – by 2014 his company removed approximately 150 pools per year. He would take the removed soil to the landfill, only to find that someone in the same area needed dirt to backfill a retaining wall or fill a hole. “The way we exchange soil now is inefficient both for the environment and businesses,” he says.
DirtMatch.com shares information on upcoming jobs and offers a way to coordinate reuse of the excavation product. By allowing businesses to connect with and access closer dumpsites, there is a decrease in fuel and labor costs – not to mention the environmental benefits.
In the early 2000s, Crownholm founded a junk-hauling business with a single pickup truck, turning it into a $1 million business in three years.
Crownholm went on to create Dump My TV, a California recycling service that diverted electronics from landfills. The company dissembled them and sold them to environmentally friendly companies, and provided job opportunities to underserved communities.
