Dell, Samsung Lead Winners for EPA Sustainable Materials Management Awards

Dell, LG, Samsung, Sony, TCL and Vizio are among the winners of the EPA's Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Electronics Challenge Awards to be recognized at CES. Winners helped keep 194,500 tons of electronics out of landfills by sending them to certified third-party recyclers, EPA said Wednesday. The agency highlighted Dell and Samsung as SMM Electronics Challenge Champion Award winners for innovation in an environmentally responsible way, going “above and beyond” challenge requirements. Dell developed a closed-loop process for recovering rare earth elements from magnets in end-of-life hard disk drives, it said. Samsung developed an affordable, upcycled "diagnosis camera" from smartphones to improve eye healthcare in underserved populations; the camera extends the life of obsolete phones, uses 50 percent recycled content and is designed for easy reuse or recovery, EPA said. According to the latest data, Americans generated 2.84 million tons of waste from consumer electronics goods in 2017; 35.9 percent of the waste was recycled. Other award winners were Sprint, Staples and Xerox.