Samsung has been strongly marketing its positive contributions to the environment for a while now. The Korean firm recently explained the entire process that the company uses to recycle batteries. Samsung has an initiative called Circular Battery Supply Chain that recovers key materials from the batteries of used Galaxy smartphones and reuses whatโs possible. This closed-loop battery recycling system only began recently with the Galaxy S25 series.
Both the Galaxy S25 and S24 lineups use 50% recycled cobalt. However, Samsung sourced the cobalt externally for the Galaxy S24 batteries. For the Galaxy S25, the company recycles cobalt from batteries of older Galaxy devices. So, this is more environmentally friendly since extracting cobalt from older batteries prevents waste.
Samsung explains the five key steps of its Circular Battery Supply Chain
The first step is collecting older Samsung phones. The company collects discarded devices during the manufacturing process because of issues and devices that people have returned for trade-in purposes.
The second step is removing the batteries from these Galaxy devices. Then, the process completely discharges the batteries, followed by shredding them. According to Samsung, there are nearly 200 tons of waste batteries at their Vietnam factories. The company had to collaborate with several companies to ensure there was no fire hazard and for safety.
In the third step, shredded batteries are processed into fine powder (known as black mass). This black mass is later refined to extract recycled cobalt. Samsung says cobalt doesnโt degrade in quality with battery. In theory, it can be recycled indefinitely with no difference in quality. Thanks to Samsungโs technology, the South Korean tech giant has been able to extract 90% of the Cobalt from the batteries.
The fourth step involves using recycled Cobalt to make Cathode material. In the fifth and final step, Samsung uses this Cathode material in the new batteries for the Galaxy S25 series.
This is just an initial step in Samsungโs ambitions. Samsung is working on further integration of in-house recycled components. โWe are working on various projects to expand resource circularity across other product lines as well, and we hope our users will continue to join us on our journey,โ said Youngmin Kim from the Circular Economy Lab.
