Samsung announced on Monday its plans to switch to more environmentally sustainable packaging during the first half of 2019.
Head of Samsung’s Global Customer Satisfaction Center, Gyeong-bin Jeon, released an official statement saying that the Korean tech giant is already stepping up to address the environmental issues faced by society today. “We are committed to recycling resources and minimizing pollution coming from our products. We will adopt more environmentally sustainable materials even if it means an increase in cost.”
In accordance with this, the company has implemented a plan to only use paper packaging materials certified by forestry initiatives by 2020. Samsung also aims to use 500 thousand tons of recycled plastics and collect 7.5 million tons of discarded products by 2030.
The statement also listed out the steps that the company will take for 2019. Packaging for the company’s products and accessories, including its phones, tablets, and appliances, will be replaced with “environmentally sustainable materials like recycled/bio-based plastics and paper,” while plastics used for phones, tablets, and wearable products will also be replaced with other eco-friendly materials. The phone charger design will also be altered, with the glossy exterior swapped for a matte finish and the plastic protection films removed.
Other plastics used as protection for items such as home appliances like TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, and the like will be substituted with “recycled materials and bioplastics, which are respectively made from plastic wastes and non-fossil fuel materials like starch or sugar cane.” As for paper, Samsung will only use “fiber materials certified by global environmental organizations” for packaging and manuals.
