KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — Samsung Electronics has taken steps to make its products more sustainable including adopting innovations and solutions that put the planet first.

In a statement today, it said Samsung’s designers are promoting a much more sustainable smartphone experience by reducing the use of plastics and vinyl in packaging and crafting phone cases from recycled materials.

“The Galaxy S series’ environmentally conscious packaging is the culmination of 10 years of hard work,” it said.

It said the 2012’s Galaxy S3 was the first device in the series to feature recycled material in its packaging followed by Samsung officially introducing its first environmentally conscious mobile packaging created using discarded paper in the next year with the Galaxy S4.

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“The Galaxy S5 and more recent entries in the series have added even more environmentally conscious elements to the mix, including biodegradable vinyl and petroleum-free soy ink,” Samsung said.

Mobile communications business design team, Mogwon Son said Samsung has equipped last year’s Galaxy S10 with eco-friendly packaging consisting of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper boxes as well as plastic and vinyl-free interior components.

“We abandoned the holder tray and the box-covering sleeve but kept the bottom box, which includes an all-in-one pulp mould, and this mold, which utilises pulp slurry made from bamboo fibres and sugarcane bagasse, is better for the environment and helps minimise waste,” he said.

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He said durability, aesthetics, and suitability for mass production are the most important elements of packaging design.

“Because the Galaxy S series is Samsung’s flagship smartphone line, consumers expect these products and their packaging to look and feel as premium as possible,” he said.

He said the process of creating a premium packaging design with recycled materials presented some unique challenges.

“First of all, it can be difficult to apply specific colours to a pulp mould and the surface of this material is curved and rough, which means that colouring it will require some retouches,” he said.

He said once it’s formed, the pulp mould might appear reddish or blue and could look like it’s stained depending on the recycled materials that were used to create it.

“In the end, the process of achieving a clean and even black hue required a lot of trial and error,” he said.

Meanwhile, Son said Samsung designers would continue to work tirelessly to persuade mobile device users to adopt a more environmentally conscious lifestyle.

“I think that designing simple packaging like this is important,” he said.

He said Samsung would continue to do their part to find materials that satisfy users from the moment they open the packaging until the moment they dispose of it.

He added that by utilising materials that not only allowed them to create an all-new designs with natural and beautiful colours — something which was previously thought to be possible only with delicate natural fibres, but are also environmentally conscious even at the injection moulding stage. — Bernama