Samsung, Environmental Plan to 2025--Packaging Single-Use Plastics Completely Abolished

What if the "Galaxy" series of smartphones could be made from recycled plastic recovered from the ocean in the future? Samsung envisions such a future as one of the possibilities. At the new product launch event "Galaxy UNPACKED 2021" held on August 11, the company announced that it will completely abolish single-use (non-recycled and discarded) plastics for smartphone packages by 2025. This is the latest example of a major tech company setting specific goals for strengthening its commitment to global environmental issues.

Samsung's new sustainability platform, Galaxy for the Planet, will significantly reduce the amount of waste generated from manufacturing to disposal of its Galaxy series smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and earphones. Will work on. In the same week as this announcement, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report calling on policy makers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to curb the rapid progress of climate change.

Samsung plans to use recycled materials in all new mobile products by 2025, along with efforts to eliminate plastics in packaging. This is where the plastic recovered from the ocean comes into play. Sophia Kim, Samsung's vice president of public relations for the mobile communications business, told CNET that one of the materials Samsung wants to pilot in making smartphones in the future is this. It is said to be plastic recovered from the ocean.

Samsung will also aim to completely abolish landfill disposal of waste by 2025, and will further improve energy efficiency by aiming for virtually zero standby power consumption for smartphone chargers. For Samsung's smartphone charger, he currently has 0.02W of standby power consumption, but the company wants to keep this to less than 0.005W by 2025. This will reduce power consumption when the charger is plugged into a power source but not in use.

Samsung has been pursuing more environmentally friendly products over the last few years, Kim said. For example, the chargers for Galaxy series smartphones, the "Galaxy Buds Pro," "Galaxy Buds Live," and the new "Galaxy Buds 2" all use recycled materials for 20% of the total.

Samsung has also switched to more environmentally friendly packaging materials. The "Galaxy S21" released in 2021 has a 51% reduction in waste compared to the "Galaxy S7" in 2016. Currently, the only plastic used in the packaging of Galaxy smartphones is the protective cover of the main body, but Samsung is working on this part as well to make it an even more environmentally friendly material.

This article was edited by Asahi Interactive for Japan from an article from overseas Red Ventures.