Samsung Sets Goal To Replace All Plastic In Its Phones With Recycled Plastic By 2050. Here's How It Plans To Do So

Samsung also has plans to go completely plastic-free in the next two decades, a top Samsung India executive told ABP Live.

Research and development play a key role in making sustainable devices, says Samsung.

Smartphone makers are ramping up efforts to support sustainability and balance the adverse effects caused by smartphone usage and production globally. Among the two biggest smartphone makers are Apple and Samsung and they have been taking sustainability and managing e-waste seriously for the past few years. While Apple has partly reached carbon-neutral operations, Samsung also has big plans to go completely plastic-free in the next two decades, a top Samsung India executive told ABP Live.

"The technology right now offer around the recycled materials used in our devices is directly proportional to the awareness around it. And as I said, this is the starting point and I hope the awareness increases, which will help us develop more technology. And with that, we will be able to apply more and more plastics in the coming future. By 2030, we hope to use 50 per cent of the devices with recycled plastics and by 2050, all the plastic that we apply in the devices will be recycled plastics," Pranveer Singh Rathore, Materials R&D Manager, Samsung Electronics, told ABP Live during a roundtable on "Galaxy Sustainability".

A look at the R&D that goes behind making sustainable smartphones

Research and development play a key role in making sustainable devices and its role starts right from the stage when a smartphone is designed. Also, the durability of the phone comes from the design part.

"So, when we design the devices, we have to design them in such a way that we can accommodate more recycled materials, which can last for a longer time. So that your phone that you use, the carbon content that has gone into making that phone is used for a longer time. The longer you use your phones the more sustainable it is," explained Rathore.

"The next part comes with utilising, and managing the waste resources such as fishing nets, plastic bottles, as you said, and other waste resources which can be managed. We want to prevent them from entering our oceans and also our landfills. If they end up in an incinerator, they're burnt, and they release a lot of carbon. So, the goal is to prevent them, and that is why, where recycled materials come into the picture, that's where our team comes into the picture," Rathore added.

Sustainable devices compromise performance? 

Samsung is aware that making sustainable smartphones should not compromise performance and quality and that's why it optimises the recycled materials that are incorporated into smartphones. "Any device which must have a sustainable device, sustainable technology, has to perform at the same level as the current devices. And, while using recycled materials, we can't compromise on quality just because we use recycled material. So that's where the challenge was, and we optimise the content of recycled materials that go into devices," explained the top Samsung Electronics executive.

Is Samsung looking to increase reusing plastic bottles from the oceans in its products in the future? 

According to the United Nations, we would have more plastics in the oceans than fish. Asked if Samsung is mulling to increase repurposing plastic bottles in its future products, Rathore replied: "We are working on it, however, I can't reveal much about it. You will hear from us very soon about this." 

Samsung has created what it calls "Circular Economy Lab" to research material recycling technologies and resource extraction processes. By 2030, the South Korean tech giant plans to establish a system in which minerals extracted from all collected waste batteries can be reused in its devices.

Samsung has also set a goal that by 2030, 50 per cent of plastic used in its products would incorporate recycled resin. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 which was launched in August has been designed to incorporate plastics recycled from discarded fishing nets and other marine waste, and it would be soon expanded to other products.