Soft plastics are notorious for jamming sorting machines, slipping through processing lines, and wreaking havoc on the environment. They’re also not accepted in most municipal curbside recycling programs. Facilities for recycling these types of plastic exist, but getting waste to these locations clean and free of what some call “wishful recycling” items (compostable cups, plastic utensils) is such a challenge that the majority of soft plastics, even the bags recycled at the front of grocery stores, end up in the trash. The SPC is what Arbouzov calls a “pre-recycling device,” designed to simplify this stream and deliver plastic that’s contained, traceable, and more likely to make it through the system. I tried to envision how the blocks would turn into patio furniture, as advertised, but didn’t learn exactly how until months later, when Arbouzov sent me a video of the blocks at their final destination—a facility in Frankfort, Indiana, that specializes in processing polyethylene and polypropylene films. The blocks get shredded into crumbles resembling, at least on video, handfuls of wet newspaper, which are then …