Plastic containers used to box products will be replaced with pulp mold packaging and paper. (Image: Samsung Electronics)
SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co. is launching a major ‘green’ initiative by pledging to replace all plastic packaging with eco-friendly materials.
The consumer electronics giant announced on Sunday that it will now use paper and eco-friendly materials for product packaging, as part of a campaign to address environmental problems surrounding resource depletion and accumulating plastic waste.
All plastic and other disposable materials used to package mobile phones, tablet PCs, and wearable devices sold worldwide will be replaced with paper or eco-friendly materials within the first half of this year.
Plastic containers used to box products will be replaced with pulp mold packaging and paper, while plastic bags for earphones and cables will also be replaced with paper and other eco-friendly materials.
Chargers will now come without a protective plastic film.
Samsung has been using eco-friendly paper to box laptop computers since last year. Now, the company will replace plastic used to package its televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines with eco-friendly materials.
Recycled plastic bags make use of discarded vinyl, reducing the quantity of petrochemical resources used in the production process. Bio-plastics use starch and sugarcane that fully replace fossil fuels.
Samsung also vowed to use paper with certifications that ensure sustainable forest management.
“We’ve set up five major policy objectives for resource circulation in order to minimize the environmental risk caused by our products,” said a source from Samsung Electronics.
“We will carry out the objectives based on our three mid-term sub-tasks.”
Samsung’s five major objectives for resource circulation include maximizing the use of recycled materials for product design, enhancing the durability of products based on the customer’s working environment, recycling discarded resources produced during the manufacturing process, shrinking the size of packaging materials, and extending replacement cycles by offering professional repair services.
As for the three mid-term sub-tasks, Samsung vowed to use 100 percent sustainability-certified paper for packaging purposes by 2020, use 500,000 tons of recycled plastic by 2030, and retrieve 7.5 million tons of discarded products by 2030.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
