Two years ago, we see major phone makers deciding that they are excluding charging adapters. That stunt was said to be in the name of environmental friendliness. More recently, we see major PC builders starting to launch products that are supposed to be more eco-friendly than ever.
To be fair, all these environmental sustainability program from corporation are nothing new. Manufacturers have been looking for ways to make their products more sustainable and more environmentally friendly. One of the most common practices for a long time was to design and manufacture their product’s packaging from recyclable materials with environmentally friendly printing substances. In a lot of cases as well, they even use recycled papers as the tray that is being used within the packaging as well.
Last year, we saw Samsung announcing their own sustainability program. They call it the “Galaxy for the Planet” initiative and they aim to do a few things with it leading up to 2025. With the initiative, Samsung aims to minimise waste from their own products by 2025. With that, they are also planning to reduce plastic usage in the same time frame. At the same time, Samsung is also planning to make their chargers more efficient while providing same charging speeds.
In accordance with their announcement, they made another announcement just ahead of Samsung’s most anticipated event in the beginning of the year, the Unpacked 2022 event; the same event that we expect to see Samsung launching their flagship candy bar, the Galaxy S22. Ahead of the Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung has mentioned that they are going to be starting to use discarded fishing nets as part of their source of materials for their devices. Effectively, Samsung is also saying that they are going to be incorporating plastics that are recycled from the oceans into their material lists.
Why Fishing Nets?
Of course, Samsung is not the first company to start using ocean plastics in their manufacturing, they are the first to deviate from what other manufacturers choose to work with. They are the first company to specifically use abandoned and discarded fishing nets from the ocean. It is a bigger problem than you think.
The fishing industry has been one of the most important industries for humanity. Fishing has kept humanity sustained since the beginning of time. But fishing has also caused a lot of pain, not for humanity directly, but for the ecology that has kept humanity surviving for many lifetimes.
Plastic based fishing nets have been around for centuries. While it is cheap and durable to work with, it does more harm than good when left alone. While environmentalists hardly speak of abandoned fishing nets or ‘ghost nets’ as a common problem, it is a problem. When fishing nets are left alone, it can still trap marine life, damage coral reefs, and eventually destroy the ecology that has kept humanity surviving for many centuries.
It is estimated that there is about 640,000 tons of fishing nets that are abandoned and discarded every year in the ocean. It is also said that fishing nets make up about 10% of the total 12 million tonnes of plastic waste that finds their way to the ocean.
Galaxy With a Twist in the Future
Samsung ends the announcement with; “Learn more about our vision for a sustainable future at Unpacked”. Currently there are no confirmed products that will feature PCM (Post Consumer Materials) in Samsung’s line-up. While we have a good idea of what the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy Tab S8 will look like, Samsung has not shared the materials that they will be using.
Before this announcement we assumed that Samsung will be using the same materials as before; mostly aluminium, or glass, and some plastics. After the announcement though, we are not entirely sure. The Samsung Galaxy S22 devices and Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 could feature some PCMs within its build. What we are sure of though is that future Samsung devices will contain a percentage of PCM in their build.
What we are sure of as well is that we will find out more in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event. Find out what you can expect from Samsung’s flagship in their upcoming launch in our write up. For more information on Samsung’s latest initiative, you can also visit their newsroom.
