Your old phone might be powering the Galaxy S25 and here’s how Samsung makes it happen
Actually, for the first time, this closed-loop battery recycling system is being applied to Samsung’s flagship series and now the company has revealed even more details on how the process works.
According to Samsung, its production facilities in Vietnam collect about 200 tons of waste battery material annually. Some countries with advanced recycling systems repurpose these materials for things like electric vehicle batteries, but Vietnam lacks the necessary infrastructure.
And to address this gap and promote sustainability, Samsung says it took matters into its own hands, setting up a solution to ensure that these materials don’t go to waste.
Samsung’s Vietnam facilities are among those that generate the highest volume of waste batteries, including defective units from the manufacturing process and batteries recovered from a factory that repairs Galaxy phones traded in from the United States. Our goal was to create a system that would allow us to recycle these resources and reintegrate them into our products.
– Youngmin Kim, Circular Economy Lab in the Global Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Office at Samsung, March 2025
So, first, the company collects old Galaxy devices. Then, the next step is to remove the batteries, discharge them and shred them into smaller pieces.
Video credit – Samsung
We had to engage with numerous partner companies, navigating complex and rigorous procedures. To prevent fire hazards during transport, the batteries had to be crushed and obtaining the necessary certifications to comply with relevant environmental regulations took considerable time.
– Sangcheul Lee from the Battery Group in the Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung, March 2025
The third step involves processing these shredded pieces into a fine powder called “black mass,” which is then refined to extract recycled cobalt.
Cobalt does not degrade with battery use, meaning it can theoretically be recycled indefinitely. Recycled cobalt and newly mined cobalt are virtually identical — so much so that the difference is indistinguishable in the manufacturing process.
– Sangcheul Lee from the Battery Group in the Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung, March 2025
In the following stage, the extracted cobalt is used to create cathode materials. Finally, these cathode materials are used to produce the batteries for the Galaxy S25.
Cobalt plays an important role in ensuring the stability and performance of lithium-ion batteries in smartphones. Why? Well, lithium moves electrons within the battery, but cobalt helps facilitate the movement of lithium, guaranteeing the battery operates at its best.
