Do not confuse the manufacture of soil with the use of mulch. Do not situate compost piles within the driplines of your trees, because you will be depriving your tree roots of oxygen. Put your compost piles in areas where there is full exposure to rain and sunshine in order to get faster conversion to soil. Any wood chip mixture can be used as mulch, however, the depth of the material should not exceed 2 to 3 inches, as its only purpose is to prevent moisture loss from the soil. I do not recommend that plant crowns be covered with wood chip mulches at any time.
Straw is a better covering for winter protection of tender perennials.
The next time, the excuse was that their shredder passed the slim branches through without cutting them, and the material would be useless as mulch because I could not fork it, being such a tangled mess. Finally, out of desperation, I wrote a letter to the mayor. I pointed out that they were spending a lot of my money taking this material to the landfill. Needless to say, the letter worked wonders. And, the Director of Public Works turns out to be a really nice guy.