Samsung ditches plastic packaging for ‘sustainable materials’

Your next Samsung phone could come in recycled and bio-based paper and plastic wrapping.

The company’s electronics division announced its new sustainability policy Sunday and it involves changing product packaging for its phones, tablets, and wearables.

Now, instead of plastic, pulp molds will form holder trays. Accessories will be wrapped in eco-friendly materials. Samsung phone chargers will even change from a glossy finish to matte so that the company doesn’t need to use a plastic protection film. The little things add up.

Appliances like TVs, fridges, washing machines, and other kitchen products will no longer come in standard plastic bags, but bags made of recycled plastic and bioplastics, which are made from biomass materials like vegetable fats, corn starch, or sugar cane. 

Samsung’s new paper strategy means using environmentally friendly materials for its packaging and manuals. The packaging changes are supposed to start by the second half of 2019. New paper sourcing will be in place by 2020. 

Apple also has taken a hard look at its packaging waste. In 2017, the iPhone maker laid out plans for its paper and plastic sourcing. It started re-examining its packaging materials in 2015. Even back in 2012, its iPod packaging was biodegradable, so Apple’s been thinking for years about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — essentially a growing island of plastic waste in the Pacific.

And this doesn’t even get into e-waste…