Wood chips... leaves and other mulch sources

Where to get wood chips or whatever materials. Free most importantly.
It's autumn - now. Meaning the time is now. The nature will work for you in colder and likely more humid weather (if you are in an arid climate like I am).

Here are several ways to get free mulch.

1) Chip and collect your own wood chips. All the branches , leaves.
Leaves are free with this method, but wood chips are not.
Chipping your own works if your location is remote and you have to process the tree waste and can not do hugelculture. Chipping your own as it is very tedious work for not a lot of return. Household chipper will produce after about 20 or 30 minutes maybe a cubic foot of chipped tree waste. It is good to cover 2-3 square feet of garden. Residential-sized wood chippers that can handle branches up to 3 inches (8 cm) are fairly costly (upwards of $500 new). If you can get a deal on a used one, it may be more economical, but it certainly isn’t all that efficient. Don’t forget that your “free” wood chips are now costing you a lot.

2) Free chips can be collected so from craigslist. Look for the local adds, and post one that you want wood chips. People who remove trees will drop off free. All depends on the location and how 'on the way' is your property.
These come in loads of 10-20 yards. That's your best bet.

3) Free leaves from neighbors in bags. Go pick up and the time is now. Post an add on local craigslist for leaves, for straw bales, for grass. I made me keyhole garden like that with free logs, leaves, grass and branches. It did grow over 200 pounds of food and I do not even know how many zucchini did I give away from that garden... that one went a bit crazy...
Lots of leaves can be collected from local neighborhoods. Have tarp in your car that will minimize the mess and make the clean up easy. If there is a concern about leaves flying look for local coffee processor, they will give away burlap. Starbucks will not, not likely...

4) Free grass clippings - pick up in summer for compost, dry grass makes very good mulch and no, that one does not fly away as easy as many would think. Neither do chipped leaves. These will come your way in spring when people do power-rake the lawns. These are handy and good mulch as well. It does not fly in the wind much. Surprisingly...

5) Search on google maps , white pages or what have you in your area for tree service, start calling and get yourself on the list for chips drop off. Say that you take pine as well (and no it's not bad, not too acidic, especially if you are on alkaline soil like I am that's the chips you want, they do decompose just fine and make good soil) . These are large loads 10-20 yards.

6) Call local power utility company and get yourself on the drop off list there, they all trim trees near power lines. These can be not a full load and if you are on the way they will drop off.

7) Call your local municipality/county and see what is their waste management doing and if they give away wood chips to public for water conservation. Lots of places do. Most will not load your truck except of particular days. This way one can get free smaller loads + truck gas.

8) Call local waste management. Some municipalities not only recycle they also compost.
They likely to have wood chips pick up location. They most likely will not load the truck. Some will on specific days in spring.

9) use https://getchipdrop.com Did not have whole lot of luck with that one so... Was on the list forever and nothing.

10) Pay attention on the road if you see that wood chips truck call them and say do you want to drop off wood chips guys? I'm right behind you here is the address. That's how I found me lots and lots of very free wood chips from local tree service that happened to work in the area often.

11) see local utility company or whatever tree people working the tree ask if they need a drop off and give them your address and contact. These personal contacts were most successful for me.

12) Keep the list of tree services. If you got on the drop off list once does not mean they still have your info, keep it updated and make sure you still want the wood chips.

13) Ask around if you see tree people working. Those loads that are close always are free.

14) Some tree people will deliver for a fee. That works well for people who are more 'out of the way' and remote.