Samsung might soon offer recycled parts for phone repairs
Regardless of whether you’ve splurged on a flagship phone, or opted to stick with a budget device, the day might come when it breaks, and you’ll be forced todecide whether to repairor replace it. If you choose the former, and it’s made by Samsung, you might soon be treated to a smaller repair bill — not to mention a smaller impact on the environment — if the company follows through on plans to offer recycled components for hardware repairs.
Details are a bit light at this point, butBusiness Korea reportsthat Samsung is planning to implement a program offering manufacturer-certified used parts for use in repairs, instead of just brand-new components (spotted bySamMobile). It’s unclear if the recycled parts would be available for direct purchase by consumers, or only for repairs completed by Samsung, but it might make sense to offer them to customers who take advantage ofthe company’s self-service repair program, once it is live.
Supposedly, we could see the used components become available before the second half of the year. This report only specifically talks about smartphone repairs, though, so other Samsung devices, such as tablets and laptops, may not be eligible for the program — we still need to get more details.
While it’s possible this plan may not actually come to fruition, recycling perfectly good parts would complement Samsung’s previous environmental efforts to reduce waste. For instance, the company is committed tochanging its packaging to be more environmentally sustainable, and is no longer including charging bricks with every new device. More recently, it announced that some of the Galaxy S22’s components weremade from recycled fishing nets.
The decision to repair or replace can be a difficult one, especially as new parts, combined with the cost of labor, can approach the price of a new phone. If Samsung does move forward with this program, however, the availability of manufacturer-certified used parts, combined with self-service repairs, might be a much more financially palatable option than we have today — and the planet may be just a bit healthier tomorrow.
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