Samsung To Turn Ocean Plastic Into Phones

If you’ve been paying any kind of attention to the environment in the last 50 years, you’ll notice the excess of plastic… everywhere. It’s on our streets, in our lakes, there’s even a Manhattan-sized garbage island just floating around. Samsung wants to take all of that plastic and incorporate it into their products. 

“We’re excited to announce Galaxy for the Planet, our commitment to helping build a more sustainable future across our business and product lifestyles. By 2025, we are set to achieve zero standby power consumption for our smartphone chargers, incorporate recycled material in all our mobile products, and eliminate the use of plastics in our packaging. We will also divert all waste from landfill sites across our manufacturing facilities by then.

“This is a small but crucial step in our sustainability journey. We believe that achieving these goal will bring us one step closer to creating a greener future. Samsung is committed to creating a more sustainable world,” Stephanie Choi, Senior Vice President and Head of Marketing Team, Mobile Communications Business. 

“Galaxy for the Planet,” is Samsung’s new sustainability plan for their Galaxy line. By 2025, Samsung will have incorporated recycled material into all of their Galaxy products including phones, tablets, watches, and earbuds. The idea is to use all of the available plastic just floating around in the ocean being confused for food and recycle it into their products. 

Plastic, Plastic Everywhere

Currently, the Galaxy Buds Pro, Galaxy Buds Live, and Galaxy Buds 2 are made up of 20% recycled material. That’s great, but if you’ve read the latest report on climate change, you know that that’s not enough. In order to help get to where we need to be, Samsung has set attainable goals. 

Another plan by Samsung is to reach zero standby power consumption of all smartphone chargers. They want to bring the current power consumption down from 20 milliwatts to 5 milliwatts. It’s not exactly a sexy goal, but it makes a world of difference in terms of energy consumption. 

Samsung has not yet specified exactly how they’re going to gather plastic from the oceans. But they won’t have to look very far to find a solution. Fortunately, there are companies that specialize in cleaning up the ocean with a variety of technologies. There are even government-sponsored machines like Mr. Trash Wheel that gather debris found in rivers and harbors. 

Samsung isn’t the only electronics company to set eco-friendly goals. Apple has a goal to be carbon impartial by 2030. Microsoft to be carbon adverse by 2030. Some may argue it’s too late, but the truth is that anybody is welcomed to the environmental justice party with open arms. 

Time To Get To Work

Ocean plastic is a major problem. One that we don’t necessarily get to see but one where we will certainly feel the consequences. This affects all of us, not just the turtle with a straw stuck up its nose. When our oceans are unhealthy, we become unhealthy. More companies need to put their heads together and get creative. 

If we have a surplus of plastic in the oceans, let’s gather it all up and recycle what we can. People are certainly tired of being beaten over the head on environmental issues. But have you seen what’s happening in Greece? In California? Everywhere? Until we see some significant progress on climate change, we will have to continue screaming at the top of our lungs: “Um, the earth is burning! Hello?!”

Samsung has the right idea and a strong plan to get things rolling. If all goes well, more companies will follow suit. And then finally, maybe we can see some positive changes in our environment.