Samsung Bags Leadership Award for e-Waste Recycling

Samsung announced it has been granted the inaugural eCycling Leadership Award from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) ® for its efforts in recycling e-Waste. The award was presented by CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro during a ceremony at the association’s 2013 Annual Member Meeting held in Los Angeles. The company noted it was the first manufacturer of its kind to work with recycling vendors that meet strict social and environmental requirements.

Since its Samsung Recycling Direct program began in 2008, Samsung has collected and recycled more than 300 million pounds of e-Waste, 92.5 million pounds of which were acquired in 2012.

Walter Alcorn, CEA’s Vice President of Environmental Affairs and Industry Sustainability, commented, “Samsung has been at the forefront of the electronics recycling effort in our eCycling Leadership Initiative and exemplifies our industry’s commitment to responsible environmental stewardship. We want to make recycling electronics as easy as purchasing electronics. And through the efforts of leaders like Samsung, and CEA’s efforts to promote eCycling directly to consumers via our www.GreenerGadgets.org resource, we have made great progress toward that goal.”

David Steel, Executive Vice President of Strategy for Samsung Electronics North America, expressed that Samsung is honored to receive this recognition, adding that “When our recycling program started in 2008, we made a commitment to only work with e-Stewards certified recyclers, and we continue to set the bar within the industry, increasing the number of pounds we collect each year.”