Samsung Electronics To Follow Sustainable Route By Ditching Plastic Packaging In All Their Products

New Delhi: Global market leader in consumer electronics, Samsung has decided to ditch plastic packaging. Under the company’s sustainability policy, Samsung Electronics announced this week about their plan to replace plastic packaging materials with paper and other environmentally sustainable elements. The firm announced in a statement,

From the first half of 2019, the packaging used currently for Samsung’s products and accessories – ranging from mobile phones and tablets to home appliances – will be substituted with environmentally sustainable materials like recycled/bio-based plastics and paper.

The firm has already deployed a ‘task-force’ to look after innovative designs, development, purchasing, marketing and quality assurance to revamp their product packaging.

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According to an official from Samsung India, for mobile phones, tablets and wearable products, the plan is to replace the plastic involved in packaging like set holder cases with pulp molds and bags wrapping accessories, with other suitable eco-friendly alternative. Phone charger design will also be altered, and the glossy exterior will be swapped with a matte finish, eliminating the need to use plastic protection films.

When it comes to the bigger home appliances that use the most amount of plastic packaging like televisions, air conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators among others, Samsung has planned to replace these with bags containing recycled materials and bioplastics. These are made from plastic wastes and non-fossil fuel materials like starch and sugar cane.

Samsung will use paper made of fiber materials certified by global environmental organisations like the Forest Stewardship Council, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Scheme and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative for packaging and manuals by 2020. Gyeong-bin Jeon, head of Samsung’s Global Customer Satisfaction Center, said,

Samsung Electronics is stepping up in addressing society’s environmental issues such as resource depletion and plastic wastes. 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.

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Samsung Electronics has set a mid-term implementation plan to only use paper packaging materials certified by forestry initiatives by next year. By 2030, Samsung aims to use 500 thousand tons of recycled plastics and collect 7.5 million tons of discarded products (both cumulative from 2009).

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.