Sorted - What Recycling Won't Take

IT WAS

SUPPOSED

TO BE A

SCHOOL

PROJECT

IT WAS

SUPPOSED

TO BE A

SCHOOL

PROJECT

IT WAS

SUPPOSED

TO BE A

SCHOOL

PROJECT

Hastings on Hudson, 2019

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OUR STORY

2019

Today

The Idea

Hudson Compost started in 2019 with three Hastings High School students in AP Environmental Science classs, a hitch carrier, and some bungee cords. Seven years later, we run weekly curbside routes across Westchester.

Plenty of people in Hastings wanted to compost. Doing it at home meant a bin in the yard, rodents, and turning a pile all summer. Also, at home composting limits the amount of food waste that can be composted. Skipping that meant driving your food scraps somewhere on a Saturday. So most people didn't bother.

Trash gets picked up. Recycling gets picked up. Nobody was doing it for food scraps, which makes up over 50% of the trash.

So… We tried picking it up.

Plenty of residents in our town wanted to compost. Doing it at home meant a system in the yard, rodents, and turning a pile all year. Also, at home composting limits the amount of food waste that can be composted. Skipping that meant driving your food scraps somewhere. So most people didn't bother.

Trash gets picked up. Recycling gets picked up. Nobody was doing it for food scraps, which makes up over 50% of the trash.

So… We tried it.

People Said Yes

On Saturdays we set up a table at the farmers market without really knowing if anyone would pay three high schoolers to take their food scraps and trust them to actually pick up their bins.

But people did.

Our Mom's Honda Pilot

With a hitch carrier from Lowes, a couple storage bins and a a few bungee cords, we ran routes in Hastings-on-Hudson on the weekends when there was no school.

We Kept Going

Ben went to University of Southern California, Jude went to Wisconsin, and we kept running the routes from across the country, hiring motivated Seniors in High School, while also teaching them about what we learned starting the business.

Ben came back to it full time after he graduated USC. Jude joined him after Madison in 2024.

Ben went to University of Southern California, Jude went to Wisconsin, and we kept running the routes from across the country,.

Ben came back to it full time after he graduated USC. Jude joined him after Madison in 2024.

Fall '26

Hudson Compost runs weekly curbside routes across twelve Westchester towns, serving homes, apartments and businesses. One truck, one driver, same idea as the minivan. Every spring the compost made from our members' food scraps goes back to them for their gardens.

We asked our compost members how we could improve the service, finding out that certain items were either taking up the majority of the space in the trash can (plastics) and causing clutter.

We then piloted Sorted with our own compost members. It was a hit, and we're so excited to opening it to everyone our brand new service.

Hudson Compost runs weekly curbside routes across 12 Westchester towns, serving homes, apartments and businesses. Every spring the compost made from our members' food scraps goes back to them for their gardens.

We asked our compost members how we could improve the service, finding out that certain items were either taking up the majority of the space in the trash can (plastics) and causing clutter.

We then piloted a new concept we were calling "Sorted" with 100 of our own compost members. It was a hit, and we're so excited to opening it to everyone our brand new service.

WHY SORTED.

Somewhere along the way, we started noticing what people left by the curb.

OLD BATTERIES

DEAD LIGHTBULBS

BAGS OF CLOTHES

CORDS & CABLES

PLASTICS

They weren’t leaving it because they thought we’d take it.

They were leaving it because they knew it shouldn’t go in the trash and didn’t know where else to put it.

We already came to their curb.

The next question we had was whether we could find a place for this "hard to recycle" stuff we knew EVERY household has.

We ran Sorted silently in the beginning of 2026, and now we're so excited to have it open to everyone.