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I could be wrong about this, but do rental places rent out wood chippers? Don't know if they do chip them to the size of mulch. Never done it before, but that might be a cheaper route to go...

Not sure if this is an option for you or not, but do tool rental places rent wood chippers? Never done it before so I am not sure of this. If they chop the wood up to the correct size for mulch, that might be an option if you have the time...

I don't know that a service would do this, but you could rent a chipper. Having chipped cut down shrubs into mulch, I can tell you that those bushes don't look like they would make good mulch. Very hard wood with lots of twigs and small leaves. To cut it small enough to not have piles of sharp little branch pieces, you would end up with lot of sawdust and a very small amount of mulch.

At least where I live, the town will take away cut down shrubs/tree branches where the town will turn it into mulch. If you do it on your own, the sawdust is "construction" waste and they don't want to take it.

Just saying. (Yes, my husband is now banned from chipping branches.)

Whoops...apparently the first comment I tried to make DID go through. :)

One school of thought says that wood chips from recently felled trees/bushes will suck all the nitrogen out of your soil as they decompose, so they should be composted before you use them. The other school says don't worry about it. If you do get these chipped, I would use them around established plants in low-visibility areas.

We need to do the same thing in front of our 2-flat and have debated the issue of doing it ourselves (and how to dispose of the shrubs in an ecofriendly manner) or hiring someone to do it for us. The Resource Center of Chicago takes yard waste and yard trimmings at the E. 70th Street facility--see the "Urban Composting" tab on their website--but I'm not sure if they take the root ball and larger branches (and you need to take it there). I'd be curious to know what kind of quotes you got to have it done for you.

Update: So we nixed the mulch idea (we didn't really need it anyway) and got a tip to just call 311 and tell them our predicament. They simply asked the rough amount of pickup we had, my name and address. The city then came and cleared it all out of our alley. they would pick up from the front as well. no charge!