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 compressed into composite decking, chairs, garden edging, and more.

“The full cycle from mailing a block to it entering recycling processing typically takes a few weeks,” Arbouzov said, “depending on shipping time and batching schedules.” Right now, the Frankfort location is the only facility processing the blocks, but Arbouzov said he hopes this is only temporary.

“Our goal is to shift more of this processing closer to where the material is generated, so blocks can move in bulk through regional recycling infrastructure rather than through mail-based logistics,” he said. “The mail-back system is essentially a bridge that allows the material to be captured today while that larger infrastructure develops.”

Recycling, Rewired

I found that my household of three was able to produce a block every couple of weeks, which quickly outpaced the provided supply of mailers. As the blocks started piling up on the floor of my office, I found myself wishing the SPC made something useful for consumers. Spoons, straws, 3D-printing filament … anything that could 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 escape into the air and water supply, but even create new ones, like benzene. Would I want this in my house? Does recycled plastic actually belong in a circular economy? I asked Arbouzov what he thought.

Predating the launch of Moto Mods in 2016, the first batch of Jolla The Other Half concepts included back covers with an extra E Ink display, an infrared camera, and an Angry Birds tie-in that activated themes and ringtones. But probably the most popular was a Blackberry/Nokia Communicator-style slider keyboard made and sold by two entrepreneurs from the original Jolla community. That trend is back in—at CES 2026, accessory company Clicks showed off a magnetic keyboard accessory you can slap on the back of any Qi2 or MagSafe smartphone, though it uses Bluetooth for connectivity.

Quite a bit has changed in what’s achievable, not least more bandwidth, more capability, and more accessible, high-quality 3D printing. “We have seven pogo pins [on the Jolla Phone] which give you the capability to get power out and power in,” says Jolla CEO Sami Pienimäki. “So you can do maybe wireless charging, and you can power external circuit boards.” Pienimäki imagines E Ink interfaces or low-bandwidth radios on the back of its upcoming phone—it has an I3C interface, which delivers bit rates up to 12 megabits per second, allowing data to flow between the phone and the mod, enabling new kinds of smarter modular accessories.

Jolla has promised to release the final phone specifications by the end of the month, with shipping due for the first preorder customers at the end of June. Pienimäki teases that it’s “tempting” for him to release one of Jolla’s own internal concepts for a TOH back cover even earlier as “a showcase of what you can actually do.” (The Jolla Phone doesn’t have FCC approval in the US, but the company is considering a US launch in the future.)

With more than 10,000 preorders since December 2025, Jolla is back in business but still far from mainstream. So why, despite plenty of internet hype over the years, did truly modular phones never quite take off?

“During the LTE days, there was thinking that these devices would morph into ‘cloud phones,’ where the rest of the phone could be cost-optimized,” Fieldhack says. “Swappable parts and lower costs, as most of the compute would be done in the cloud.”

But things changed as flagship phones went from costing $350 to around $1,000. Both the camera and media production and consumption became much more important: “Great displays, great cameras, multiple cameras, more memory, better sound and mics, as well as more elegant and thin devices—this is not easily done on a modular smartphone,” Fieldhack says. “There are huge compromises, and phones are thicker and heavier with less performance. Then, agentic AI, on-device for lower costs and better security, made modular design even less optimal.”

Repairable Modules

One strong and emerging argument for true hardware modularity is repairability. Another European smartphone maker, Fairphone, has been making that case for over a decade. “It’s about thinking about how do we group the actual phone itself into modules?” says Fairphone chief technology officer Chandler Hatton. The latest FairPhone Gen 6 smartphone is made up of 12 modules. A customer sitting at the kitchen table with a single T5 screwdriver (included) and a guitar pick can repair the phone quickly, easily, and cheaply.

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