Clear Drop Soft Plastic Compactor Review: Eco Experiment

Soft plastics are notorious for blocking sorting machines, slipping into processing lines and wreaking environmental havoc. They are also not accepted in most municipal curbside collection programs.

There are facilities for recycling this type of plastic, but getting the waste to these places 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 entrance to grocery stores, end up in the trash. The SPC is what Arbouzov calls a “pre-recycling device,” designed to simplify this flow and provide plastic that is contained, traceable, and more likely to pass through the system.

I tried to imagine 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 are shredded into crumbs resembling, at least on video, handfuls of wet newspaper, which are then compressed into composite decking, chairs, garden borders, etc.

“The complete cycle from sending a block to its recycling processing typically takes a few weeks,” Arbouzov said, “depending on shipping time and batch processing schedules.” Currently, the Frankfurt site is the only one processing blocks, but Arbouzov hopes this will only be temporary.

“Our goal is to bring this processing closer to where the material is generated, so that the blocks can be transported in bulk through regional recycling infrastructure rather than postal logistics,” he said. “The mail-back system is essentially a bridge to capture the material today while this larger infrastructure develops.”

Recycling, Rewired

I found that my household of three was able to produce a block every two weeks, which quickly exceeded the amount of mail supplied. As the blocks began to pile up on my office floor, I found myself wishing the SPC would do something useful for consumers. Spoons, straws, 3D printing filament… anything that can be used at home.

However, a 2023 Greenpeace report found that recycling plastic can actually make it even more toxic than it already is: heating it can not only cause existing chemicals to leak into the air and water, but even create new ones, like benzene. Would I want this in my house? Does recycled plastic really have its place in a circular economy? I asked Arbouzov what he thought about it.