Your next Samsung Galaxy device might be made out of… old fishing nets?

Everyone’s becoming more aware of the harm we’re doing to the planet everyday, and plenty of companies are jumping on the bandwagon with new and innovative ways to become more sustainable. Samsung is the latest to join that club, announcing that they’ve developed a new material using old fishing nets and that they’ll be using it in their products from now onwards.

Ocean-bound plastics typically refer to the abandoned and discarded plastic waste such as micro plastics, old plastic bags and water bottles that end up within a 50km area of the shore line. It’s extremely common in areas where waste management isn’t that good, and as Samsung points out the biggest hidden threat isn’t your plastic straw or bottle, but is in fact old fishing nets that get thrown into the ocean. Every year, there’s about 640,000 tonnes of discarded fishing gear that ends up as ocean-bound plastic.

Dubbed as ‘ghost nets’, they end up trapping marine life, damage coral reefs and sometimes can end up in our food and water sources too. Samsung claims that their new material will be able to breathe new life into these ghost nets, preventing it from becoming harmful to our environment and ourselves. The plan for Samsung is to use it in all of their products, starting with the upcoming Galaxy S22 series.

It’s becoming fashionable for tech companies to take on more sustainability efforts these days, as more of the public become aware of environmental issues too. Apple for instance infamously removed the charger from their iPhones in the name of sustainability, while Acer also has the Aspire Vero, a laptop made out of recycled plastic. Samsung for their part is already in the midst of eliminating single-use plastics from their packaging, while also incorporating other eco-friendly materials such as recycled paper into its products.

Unfortunately, Samsung didn’t really give much more detail about their new material made of fishing nets. They did however state that they’ll be sharing more about their sustainability efforts at the next Galaxy Unpacked happening this Wednesday at 11pm local time. Of course, the star of the show there will be the upcoming Galaxy S22 series, with the Korean giant also expect to reveal the Galaxy Tab S8 lineup of tablets. You can find out more about what to expect here.