U.S. EPA Honors Winners of 2019 Electronics Challenge Awards

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The U.S. Environmental protection Agency (EPA) announced winners of the 2019 Sustainable Materials Management Electronics Challenge Awards. The awards are given away in recognition of their efforts to protect the environment.

The winners of the Gold Tier awards include Dell Inc., LG Electronics USA Inc., Samsung Electronics, Sony Electronics Inc., Sprint, Staples Inc., TCL North America, Xerox and Vizio Inc. 

Additionally, Dell Inc. and Samsung Electronics were awarded the EPA’s Champion Product Award and Cutting-Edge Award respectively. Dell won the award for its closed loop process for recycling rare earth materials from hard disk drives from returned equipment. Samsung’s smartphone-based diagnosis camera to improve eye health care equality in underserved populations won the recognition.

According to EPA, the winning companies together diverted a total of 194,500 tons of electronic scrap by sending them to certified recyclers, thereby preventing them from ending up in landfills. Consequently, they avoided the equivalent of over 511,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

The EPA plans to host a ceremony for the award winners at the Consumer Electronics Show to be held Jan 7-10 in Las Vegas.