Galaxy Note 7 was released back in 2016 and quickly recalled off the market due to the battery’s proficiency to overheat and sometimes even explode. Episodes of such explosions were reported by users from all around the globe. Noting that the battery was faulty, Samsung had no choice but to recall the premium handset. This resulted in billions of dollars in losses to the company.
To regain some of that lost profit, Samsung announced earlier this year that it would launch the refurbished Galaxy Note 7 with new batteries in its home country, South Korea.
These devices are now being retailed across the country as the Galaxy Note 7 Fan Edition. While this has allowed Samsung to recover some of the money invested on the phablet, a large number of defunct units of the phablet remain in the company’s possession. Now, Samsung has come up with a plan of scrapping the costly materials from these devices.
What will Samsung scrap?
Samsung announced on Tuesday, July 18 that it would scrap the old Galaxy Note 7 units for scraps and rare materials. It estimated that scrapping through the whole lot of the defunct handset would result in the company recovering 157 tons of rare materials, which include gold. Apart from these elements used in the device, Samsung also expects to get their hands on the memory chips, OLED display modules, and the camera modules in the devices.
Samsung plans on recycling or reusing these parts in its upcoming handsets. This idea was first propagated by an environmentalist demonstrator during the Mobile World Congress in February. The demonstrator demanded that Samsung reuses the parts and materials housed in the recalled phone, which will prevent further degradation of the environment and will help in maintaining it.
In March, the company promised that it would move forward in an environmentally friendly way in the future. The Rare Metals which the company expects to scrap from the handset in substantial quantities include copper, cobalt, and gold, which when added up will account for a huge chunk of the investments on the Samsung phone.
Other companies also going eco-friendly
Samsung is not the only company who seems to be moving with an environmentally friendly outlook. Back in April, Apple also announced that it is currently trying to figure out ways in which it can use renewable materials in its products. So, this recent announcement may be Samsung’s way of saying that regarding eco-friendliness, the company is much better than the Cupertino-based company.
