The lack of an environment friendly means for recycling plastic waste on a big scale is a urgent concern that’s beginning to take a severe toll on the setting.
According to a 2016 report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), analysis means that by the 12 months 2050, there could also be extra plastic (by weight) within the ocean than fish.1 The use of plastics, the WEF notes, “has increased twentyfold in the past half-century, and is expected to double again in the next 20 years.”
Recently, Samsung Newsroom spotlighted eco-friendly initiatives that Samsung Electronics has undertaken as a part of its decades-long dedication to sustainable innovation. Here, we’ll define the corporate’s efforts to fight e-waste and promote a round financial system by recycling assets safely and effectively.
A Simple Solution
E-waste recycling is a sophisticated course of that entails disassembling or shredding outdated units to get well helpful assets. To assist simplify step one of the method, amassing e-waste, in 1998, Samsung Electronics initiated a take-back and recycling program in Korea. Now often known as the Re+ Program, this free service, which lets shoppers eliminate outdated smartphones and home equipment by dropping them off at Samsung shops and repair facilities, was up and working in a complete of 54 nations.2
Once a smartphone has been collected, its battery is eliminated and processed individually. Rather than burning the battery, as is widespread when digital units are discarded, Samsung will as a substitute eliminate the battery safely and in an eco-friendly method. The smartphone batteries undergo 4 processing phases in all, which embody salting, perforation, drying and fragmentation levels. Any cobalt, nickel or different uncommon metals which can be extracted throughout processing are put aside to be used in new merchandise.
Once an outdated equipment has been collected and transferred to a recycling facility, it’s put via a preconditioning section that helps be certain that it’s processed effectively. Here, any units that might lower in worth in the event that they have been subjected to the primary stage of the recycling course of, which entails crushing the units to extract assets comparable to metal, copper, aluminum and plastic, are separated from the remainder.
After the units have been pulverized, an automatic process kinds the extracted assets by kind. The post-processing required to remodel these assets into uncooked supplies is accomplished not on the recycling facility itself, however at offsite smelting corporations.
Making a Difference
As a part of its dedication to making a round financial system, Samsung Electronics has established an elevated use of recycled plastic as one among its mid- to long-term targets. The hope is to make the most of what quantities to 500,000 tons of recycled plastic by 2030. Since 2009, roughly 220,000 tons2 of recycled plastic have been used to create new merchandise. Recycled plastic is just not solely tough and costly to course of, it’s additionally identified to be arduous to make use of as a result of the standard of the ultimate product varies extra extensively than with metals.
Youngjin Seo, Director of Samsung Electronics’ Product Environment Team, shed some gentle on the significance of those recycling efforts from a enterprise standpoint. “Recycling plastic from discarded devices not only helps reduce e-waste, it also reduces the amount of petrochemicals needed to produce new products,” Seo defined. “This is why resource circulation is especially important to businesses.”
You can watch the recycling course of in motion within the video beneath. See how a tool – on this case, a fridge – is collected and damaged down at a recycling facility, and the way plastic is extracted and reprocessed to be used in new units.
1The World Economic Forum, The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics (2016.01.19)
2As of 2018.
