Finding the Balance Between Innovation and the Environment

Samsung is reimagining how Galaxy technology is designed and packaged to do more with less when it comes to our planet’s natural resources. For the last decade, we have worked to innovate high-performance components that are made with recycled materials.

We took an important step in 2022 when we incorporated recycled discarded fishing nets, also known as ghost nets, in the Galaxy S22 series. Recycled materials can now be found in all Galaxy mobile products, including smartphones, tablets, PCs and wearables.¹ At the same time, we have expanded our use to a greater variety of materials, from several different types of plastics to metals and glass.

▲ Visualizing how the Galaxy S24 series is designed and packaged to do more with less for people and the planet.

The Galaxy S24 series² takes these actions one step further. For the first time in any Galaxy device, we developed key device components with recycled cobalt, rare earth elements and steel. The battery³ in the Galaxy S24 Ultra contains a minimum of 50% recycled cobalt, and 100% recycled rare earth elements⁴ and a minimum of 40% recycled steel⁵ were used in the speakers.

Samsung has a long history of addressing the pervasive challenge of plastic waste through our recycled material innovations, and recycled plastics continue to play an important role in the Galaxy S24 series. The Galaxy S24 series maintains our use of recycled plastics sourced from discarded fishing nets, water barrels and PET bottles.

The recycled ocean-bound plastic⁶ material was created in partnership with global organizations who collected discarded fishing nets abandoned near the oceans. The nets’ properties were separated, cleaned and extruded before optimizing them into high-performance, recycled polyamide pellets. Similarly, the recycled polycarbonate and PET materials are sourced from discarded water barrels and PET bottles that were ground, filtered and melted down with other additives. This process helps us transform these fragile resources into high-performance optimized materials that uphold Samsung’s state-of-the-art design and high-quality standards. We also teamed up with other organizations to upcycle discarded Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) that was generated from shoe manufacturing.

This is a culmination of our continued efforts with our partners to transform fragile plastic wastes into high performance material used in Galaxy devices. With the Galaxy S24 series, our goal by end of 2024 is to help recover nearly 100 metric tons of recycled plastics⁷, which is equivalent to 10 million empty plastic bottles.⁸

When it comes to recycled metal, the Galaxy S24 series incorporates recycled aluminum⁹ that originates from scrap metal generated during manufacturing. The aluminum scrap is re-melted, filtered for impurities and then recycled to make components within Samsung’s product development process. With the Galaxy S24 series, our goal by end of 2024 is to recover about 110 metric tons of recycled aluminum, which is the equivalent of 9 million soda cans.¹⁰

Additionally, the Galaxy S24 series comes in a packaging box made using 100% recycled paper material. By the end of 2024, we hope to recover nearly 2,760 metric tons of recycled paper with Galaxy S24 series, which is equivalent of 552 million pieces of A4 paper.¹¹ If stacked on top of one another, that would be approximately the same height as 71 Burj Khalifas,¹² which is the tallest building in the world.

From the smallest components to the newest, most premium features, the Galaxy S24 series represents a significant stride in Samsung’s sustainability journey, and we remain committed to scaling these innovations in years to come. This work will help us shift to more circular designs and build technology that supports a more sustainable future.

For more information about Samsung’s sustainability efforts, please visit our Sustainability website.

¹ Recycled materials can be found in all Galaxy devices released in and after 2022.
² The Galaxy S24 series features a variety of recycled materials including pre- or post-consumer recycled plastics, including Polyamide (PA), Polycarbonate (PC), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), and Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) in both internal and external components. It also includes components made with pre-consumer recycled aluminum and glass, as well as pre- and post-consumer recycled cobalt, rare earth elements (neodymium), and steel. For more information about the recycled materials in the Galaxy S24 series, please review Samsung’s product environmental reports on the Sustainability website.
³ The batteries of the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy S24+ include a minimum of 50% pre- and post-consumer recycled cobalt. The battery of the Galaxy S24 includes a minimum of 10% pre- and post-consumer recycled cobalt. The above measurements are based on weight.
⁴The speakers of the Galaxy S24 series include 100% pre- and post-consumer recycled neodymium. The above measurements are based on weight.
⁵ The speakers of the Galaxy S24 series include a minimum of 40% pre- and post-consumer recycled steel. The above measurements are based on weight.
⁶ Ocean-bound plastic is abandoned plastic waste of all sizes (micro-plastics, mezzo-plastics and macro-plastics) that are located within 50km of shores in communities or areas.
⁷ Calculated tons of recycled materials in this article are based on internal estimates.
⁸ Assuming the weight of 500ml PET bottles is 10g, which is the average weight of PET bottles from manufacturers across the market.
⁹ A minimum of 28% pre-consumer recycled aluminum is used in both internal and external aluminum components of Galaxy S24 series. For more information about the recycled materials in the Galaxy S24 series, please review Samsung’s product environmental reports on the Sustainability website.
¹⁰ Average weight of 330ml soda can is calculated from Metal Packaging Europe article.
¹¹ Average weight of A4 paper is calculated based on ISO 536:2019.
¹² At 828 meters high, the Burj Khalifa holds the record as the tallest building in the world.

Driven by a desire to keep our planet clean for generations to come, Samsung Electronics regularly engages in eco-conscious efforts that are helping to establish a circular economy. The company is constantly exploring ways to reduce its products’ impact on the environment, including increasing products’ lifespans and spearheading efforts to recycle their resources.

In celebration of Earth Day 2021 (April 22), this special series will shine a light on Samsung initiatives that are paving the way for a circular economy. Our first article took a closer look at how the company’s recycling campaigns are giving old phones new life. The second installment went on to examine how Samsung’s Visual Display Business is making its TVs more sustainable by adopting eco-friendly packaging and solar-cell-powered remote controls. Now, the third part in the series presents a video that demonstrates how Samsung is increasing its use of recycled plastic by using materials from old home appliances to make new refrigerator and laundry machine parts. Check out the video below to find out just how Samsung is utilizing recycled materials to include both old and new home appliances in its circular economy vision.

¹ According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2020 by Global E-waste Statistics Partnership (GESP), the amount of electronic waste in 2019 was 53.6 million metric tons (Mt).

(From left) Engineers Kwanyoung Kim and Seungsan Han, and designer Sungdo Son – members of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business, and the developers behind the company’s new solar cell-powered remote control and environmentally friendly TV packaging.

Did you know that out of the more than 50 million¹ tons of electronics that are thrown away each year, only a mere 17 percent is eventually recycled? Most of this ‘e-waste’ ends up polluting the environment by sitting in landfills or being incinerated. With annual e-waste expected to reach as much as 74 million tons by 2030, the global community has started taking steps to reduce consumption and minimize waste.

Driven by a desire to keep our planet clean for generations to come, Samsung Electronics regularly engages in eco-conscious efforts that are helping to establish a circular economy. The company is constantly exploring ways to reduce its products’ impact on the environment, including increasing products’ lifespans and spearheading efforts to recycle their resources.

In celebration of Earth Day 2021 (April 22), this special series will shine a light on Samsung initiatives that are paving the way for a circular economy. Our first article took a closer look at how the company’s recycling campaigns are giving old phones new life. Here, we’ll examine how Samsung’s Visual Display Business is making its TVs more sustainable by adopting eco-friendly packaging and solar-cell-powered remote controls.

Today, innovation no longer focuses solely on creating a more convenient and efficient future, but a sustainable one as well. As such, leaders in the fields of science and technology are devoting their utmost efforts to making their products eco-friendly without compromising on performance.

Samsung consistently pursues innovations that allow it to make its products more environmentally friendly. Recently, the company added an eco-friendly touch to one of consumers’ favorite appliances by developing a remote control that’s made using renewable plastic and powered by photovoltaic energy rather than disposable batteries, as well as TV packaging that can be reused as small furniture. Samsung Newsroom recently sat down with members of the team behind the innovations that are making Samsung TVs more sustainable.

A Solar Cell-Powered Remote Control That Charges Itself Using Photovoltaic Energy

Even if you have a nice, big, high-performance TV in your living room, you won’t be able to fully enjoy its countless channels and manage the volume and other features without a remote control. When exploring ways to make remote controls more eco-conscious, Samsung’s developers focused their attention on disposable batteries.

“Supposing that a typical TV is used for around seven years, changing the batteries in its remote just once a year would mean that 14 batteries would get used and thrown out,” said Kwanyoung Kim, an engineer. If we apply that number to Samsung Electronics’ expected annual global TV sales, it amounts to approximately 99 million discarded batteries. If we apply it to annual TV sales overall, it adds up to nearly 3.1 billion batteries.²

▲Over the course of a TV’s lifetime, a solar cell-powered remote control could effectively prevent up to 99 million AA batteries from being used and discarded.

Rather than using disposable batteries in the remote, the engineers decided to go with a self-charging battery instead. Many charging methods were considered, including one that harnessed the kinetic energy that’s created when the remote is shaken, and one that utilized the vibrational energy that’s created when the microphone picks up sounds. As Kim explained, at the end of the day, the optimal charging solution turned out to be a solar cell.

“Even when we aren’t watching our TV or using our remote, we usually have the lights on, except when we are sleeping. This makes light an easily accessible charging solution,” said Kim. “If we substituted disposable batteries with self-charging solar cell batteries like the one we’ve developed, it would amount to reducing up to around 6,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.”

How exactly does the remote control generate energy from the fluorescent lights in our living rooms? Put simply, its solar panel takes in photons from light, which react with the electrons in the solar cells to create electricity. The difference between outdoor panels and indoor panels is the spectrum of light being used. “You can’t get as much light indoors compared to sunlight,” added Kim, “so we decided to utilize solar cells that generate energy even in low-light indoor environments.”

Increasing Electricity Efficiency Makes Solar Cell-Powered Remote Controls Possible

Because the amount of electricity that could be created by converting light energy simply wasn’t enough, it would be impossible to generate enough energy for the remote control using solar cells alone. This led the engineers to create a low power remote control instead of searching for ways to increase energy production.

The engineers succeeded in increasing the remote control’s energy efficiency by reducing its power consumption by 86 percent.³ They did this by taking users’ TV watching patterns, the number of times they pressed their remote control’s buttons, and usage time into account. As Kim explained, the solar cells in the final product “can provide up to 70 percent of the power used by the remote control.”

Making the design of the typical TV remote control, which has remained unchanged until now, more sustainable was no simple task. The color of the solar panel was already determined, so it was difficult to apply various colors to the remote control’s design. One of the team’s key concerns was that the remote control’s panel would need to be raised up high in order to be charged via light. “The solar panel itself is gray, so if we used a color other than black for the battery, it wouldn’t go well with the overall product design,” said Kim. “We also needed the design to encourage consumers to do their part to help the environment.”

The remote control is so small that you could ask whether it even needs to be energy-saving. If you asked the developers, they would tell you that, because the final product is even more eco-conscious than they anticipated, its design was undoubtedly meaningful and their efforts were worthwhile. Their ultimate goal is to develop a solar cell-powered remote control that is capable of charging itself up to the full amount of energy that it needs.

“TV remote controls are frequently used products, and our aim is to create the kind of remote that offers users meaningful value, and can be a deciding factor when purchasing a TV,” said Kim.

Use of Recycled Plastic Materials Contributes to a Huge Reduction in CO2 Emissions

Solar panel technology isn’t the only thing that makes Samsung’s new remote control especially eco-friendly. Indeed, the plastic material used to create this roughly 40g device is comprised of 28 percent recycled plastic. Samsung has been utilizing recycled plastic in its products for a long time, and has received various certifications for its eco-friendliness. Now, the company has expanded its scope by applying recycled materials to accessories like remote controls as well.

Recycled plastic is enticing because it reuses resources, but not everything about it comes easily. For a start, unit prices go up during the manufacturing process. While Samsung’s VD business does utilize plastic waste that has been collected in Korea, the volume is so small that additional resources need to be imported from overseas. This process causes costs to go up by five percent at the least, and 10 percent at the most.

“The amount of plastics used by Samsung Electronics’ VD Business alone is 250,000 tons,” said Seungsan Han, an engineer and colleague of Kim’s. “Even substituting 10 to 30 percent of that with recycled plastics would require 30,000 to 70,000 tons.”

Despite those costs, Samsung is committed to increasing its usage of recycled materials based on their clear eco-conscious benefits. According to Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), a methodology for assessing environmental impact, products made using approximately 28 percent recycled plastics emit 31 percent less CO2 than products made from non-recycled plastics.⁴ In an effort to maximize its use of eco-friendly materials, Samsung also explores ways to utilize waste that has been thrown indiscriminately into the sea. “Twenty percent of the waste that gets thrown into the sea is made of Polyethylene terephthalate,” said Han. “The marine waste plastic obtained here is called OBP (Ocean Bound Plastic) material, which can be applied to the exteriors of electronics. Using OBP in this way helps discourage marine pollution while promoting efforts to protect the environment.”

More Interest in Eco-Friendliness Widens the Range of Recycled Materials

Samsung has long practiced eco-conscious business management, and has been developing eco-conscious products and technologies for several years. As a result, the company is now capable of producing high-quality products using recycled materials, while keeping unit prices at manageable levels.

▲ Samsung’s eco-friendly solar cell-powered remote control.

Samsung currently utilizes recycled plastics when producing many products, including not just its new, solar cell-powered remote control, but other remote controls as well. Eco-conscious materials are used in the company’s monitors, signage stands, and back covers, too. “In the future, the use of recycled materials will be expanded to include more Samsung TV products,” said Han. “With 2030 being the year when we hope to reach our ultimate achievement, we will keep increasing our use of recycled plastics each year.”

Eco-Packaging: What Would Be Trash Becomes Small Furniture

Increasing products’ efficiency and using recycled materials are clear ways to become more eco-conscious. Now, efforts are being made to address the eco-friendliness of products’ packaging, which would usually be thrown away. Allowing consumers to use their TV’s packaging to make small furniture, the eco-packaging that Samsung introduced in 2020 is a perfect example of this point.

The TVs’ eco-packaging first began as a project of C-Lab, Samsung’s in-house startup incubation program. The C-Lab developers were wondering how best to recycle TVs’ packaging when they noticed that Serif TV users were placing their set-top box, small furniture, and electric devices under their TV as if it were a cabinet. This led them to the idea to use TVs’ strong cardboard packaging to make small, long-lasting furniture, which became the foundation for a new type of ‘eco-packaging.’

Eco-packaging’s manufacturing process is mostly the same as that of other packaging, but also includes the application of a dotted pattern that helps users assemble the packaging into furniture. Although adding the dotted patterns sounds easy and could be achieved by simply printing graphics, the task presented some difficulties as well. The thicknesses and specifications of the cardboard boxes varied slightly by country, which entailed continuous communication with various parties. “Although we faced many difficulties when making the eco-packaging, we managed to do a great job thanks to the efforts of many people, including the Graphics Team,” said Sungdo Son, a Samsung Electronics designer.

Easy to Make, Beautiful to Behold

Simple steps for assembling the furniture can be found on the website embedded in the QR code printed on the side of the eco-packaging. “The website, which was recently updated, not only offers instructions on how to make furniture, but also provides an overall introduction to eco-packaging with relevant videos,” said Son. “We’ve arranged the website based on difficulty, so users can choose the type of furniture they’d like to make depending on their skill level.”

The cardboard furniture displayed on the website are all items that were chosen by designers who actually tried making them themselves. “When we focused on aesthetics, it became difficult to make the furniture, and the designs often didn’t end up being very useful,” said Son. “On the other hand, when the furniture was too easy to make, it didn’t look so great. We also got rid of any furniture designs that could potentially create safety issues.”

Samsung’s safety- and environmentally conscious eco-packaging has gone beyond lifestyle TVs and is now being applied across the company’s entire 2021 TV lineup. The employees involved in developing the eco-packaging hope that it will eventually reach much more consumers, and will help encourage them to contribute to environmental conservation in any way they can. “Samsung is known for producing technologically advanced products, but I want others to know that Samsung also believes that little things like these matter, and we are working on them as well,” said Son.

¹ According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2020 by Global E-waste Statistics Partnership (GESP), the amount of electronic waste in 2019 was 53.6 million metric tons (Mt).

² 2020 global annual TV sales figures are based on findings from market research firm OMDIA.

³ Compared to remote controls of Samsung Electronics’ 2020 TV models.

⁴ Emissions of general plastics: 2.15 kg CO2/kg; emissions of recycled plastics: 1.47 kg CO2/kg; a reduction in CO2 emissions of 31 percent (based on a Lotte Chemical LCA evaluation)

Driven by a desire to keep our planet clean for generations to come, Samsung Electronics regularly engages in eco-conscious efforts that are helping to establish a circular economy. The company is constantly exploring ways to reduce its products’ impact on the environment, including increasing products’ lifespans and spearheading efforts to recycle their resources.

In celebration of Earth Day 2021 (April 22), this special series will shine a light on Samsung initiatives that are paving the way for a circular economy. Let’s kick things off by taking a closer look at how the company’s recycling campaigns are giving old phones new life.

¹ According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2020 by Global E-waste Statistics Partnership (GESP), the amount of electronic waste in 2019 was 53.6 million metric tons (Mt).

While previous efforts were localized to Samsung employees in Korea, this year Samsung has expanded its participation to locations across the globe and included both employees and consumers in the campaign.

A diverse range of activities have been arranged for the campaign. Samsung is collecting used electronics from their employees in order to recycle them, placing collection boxes in convenient places, including building entrances and cafeterias. In addition to Korea, the collection drive is currently taking place in several other countries, including the U.S., Germany, Russia and India.

Samsung employees take part in a collection drive for used mobile devices in Korea (top) and Russia (bottom).

Samsung’s customer support centers in 25 countries are also participating in the campaign. In Mexico, for example, Samsung is providing seeds to customers on April 22. The seedlings grown from these seeds will be planted at a national park designated by the government on Mexico’s Earth Day, which is celebrated towards the end of October. The names of the individual customers who nurtured them will be placed beside each plant. Children who visit Samsung support centers in Turkey on Earth Day receive coloring books and pencils made from recycled materials. In addition, Samsung will be providing gifts, such as potted plants and eco-bags, and leaflets to those who visit Samsung support centers in Canada, Spain, Germany, Ukraine and Taiwan, as well as other regions and countries.

Samsung Electronics Support Centers in Canada (left) and Ukraine (right) are helping to raise awareness about environmental issues through eco-friendly campaigns, offering eco-bags to visitors and collecting used batteries.

Alongside the Earth Day campaigns, Samsung is incorporating eco-friendly materials into its designs. The company utilizes regenerating plastic in a variety of product lines, including refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, TVs, monitors and cell phone chargers, to minimize waste. After announcing plans to increase the use of eco-friendly and recycled materials in its packaging in January this year, Samsung introduced the company’s first plastic-free packaging design with the launch of the S10 line.

Since announcing the Samsung Environmental Declaration in 1992, Samsung has implemented a variety of environmentally responsible policies that have made its industry-leading innovations more eco-friendly and sustainable. In particular, when producing new products, Samsung recycles as much plastic as possible from electronic waste. And recently, the company announced plans to replace plastic packaging materials with paper and other environmentally sustainable elements.

Click on the video below to learn more about how Samsung’s sustainability efforts are putting the planet first.