Samsung awarded two EPA accolades for continued environmental leadership, innovation

05 / 03 / 2022

• CSR
• news

Samsung Electronics America has received two awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in recognition of its continued environmental leadership and innovation.

Samsung’s honors include a Gold Tier Award, the EPA’s highest award for the responsible recycling of electronic waste (e-waste) and a Sustained Excellence Award, a new EPA accolade, recognizing its legacy of Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) product innovation, including our groundbreaking SolarCell Remote for Samsung TVs.

The EPA’s SMM Electronics Challenge program honors brands that have employed innovative strategies to use materials in a more environmentally responsible way throughout their lifecycle.
Samsung’s eco-innovation in materials and responsible recycling program have been recognized each year by the EPA and its consumer recycling programs have received the highest SMM award level since the SMM Program’s inception in 2014.

“At Samsung, we’re making sustainability the driving force of our bold innovations and we’re deeply honored by the EPA’s recognition of those efforts,” said Mark Newton, Head of Corporate Sustainability for Samsung Electronics America. “Our engineers and designers are continuously finding meaningful ways to reduce waste and minimize our environmental impact as part of our journey toward a more circular economy. When consumers buy a Samsung product, we want them to feel confident that they’re not only experiencing our cutting-edge technology and eco-innovation advances, but we’re also making it easy for them to repair, refurbish and recycle their products as well.”

“It’s going to take all of us working together to build a sustainable future, and I applaud the organizations recognized today for their leadership in essential electronic recycling efforts,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Electronics are a global economic driver with supply chains that reach around the world and products that play a big role in our daily lives. Because of these organizations’ efforts, we’re able to recover and recycle valuable resources like precious metals, critical minerals, plastics and glass.”

The EPA SMM Gold Tier Award, which Samsung has won for the eighth consecutive year, acknowledges our excellence in e-waste collection throughout the United States. We collect and recycle an average of 100 million pounds of e-waste per year in the United States, the greenhouse gas (GHG) equivalent of over two million trees sequestering carbon for ten years. Since 2008, we’ve responsibly recycled more than a billion pounds of electronics, diverting them from U.S. landfills and recovering reusable materials. And Samsung has an aggressive goal to incorporate 500,000 tons of recycled plastics into our products globally by 2030.

In addition to our legacy of SMM innovations over the years, the EPA Sustained Excellence Award recognizes Samsung’s SolarCell Remote, which was introduced in early 2021 and developed to reduce battery waste and to help close the loop on plastic waste. This innovation — which is currently available with Samsung 4K and 8K QLED (Neo, Q80A, Q70A, Q60A) and MicroLED televisions — is projected to eliminate the disposal of 99 million AA batteries and avoid 5,840 tons of GHG over the course of seven years of usage.* Beyond reducing battery waste, Samsung is cutting down on plastic waste as the remote contains 24% upcycled Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and Polycarbonate (PC).

What’s more is that, in January 2022, Samsung unveiled advancements on the second generation of its SolarCell Remote, which can now draw electricity from radio frequencies in devices like Wi-Fi routers. The remote has also been included in more Samsung products, such as new Samsung TVs and home appliances – all with the aim of eliminating the disposal of more than 200 million AA batteries from landfills.