• The company’s six Korea sites meet the Platinum standards of UL Solutions’ Zero Waste to Landfill program
• All overseas facilities to achieve Zero Waste to Landfill validation by the year’s end
• Samsung SDI CEO says, “We will continuously endeavor to make the world greener and sustainable through efforts in pursuit of resource circulation”

SEOUL, Korea – September 20, 2023 – Samsung SDI today announced that the company has accomplished the highest level of certification from UL Solutions Zero Waste to Landfill (ZWTL) program, as a testament to its strengthened environment-friendly management.

Awarded by UL Solutions, a global safety science certifier, ZWTL designations are classified into Platinum (100%), Gold (99-95%), and Silver (94-90%) ratings according to the rate of landfill diversion a facility achieves. It is widely used as an international standard for evaluating a company’s efforts for resource circularity.

At its Korea operations, Samsung SDI is successfully diverting from landfill or incineration 100% of its general waste as well as the designated waste generated in manufacturing which is then either separated and recycled or used as energy.

The company’s Giheung and Cheongju sites earned Platinum for two years in a row since 2022, while those in Cheonan, Ulsan, Gumi and Suwon received the highest-level certification this year.

Since 2019, the Samsung battery maker has been working closely with its recycling partners in Korea to extract cobalt, nickel and lithium from scrap at its plants and recycle such recovered key materials for battery manufacturing under a closed-loop system.

In May 2022, the company opened the Recycle Research Lab under the R&D Center to research and develop ways to improving the rate of recovering battery materials and reclaiming eco-friendly materials.

Taking the momentum forward, Samsung SDI plans to have all of its overseas operations validated by UL Solutions Zero Waste to Landfill program.

The company’s Wuxi operations in China have preemptively obtained the Platinum status, with those in Hungary and Tianjin designated for Gold.

Once the Malaysia and Vietnam operations get successfully certified, Samsung SDI will have earned Zero Waste to Landfill certifications in all of its operations at home and abroad by the end of this year.

In addition, the company has set forth a goal of raising the landfill waste diversion rates at the Gold-rated facilities to have all of its global operations meet the ZWTL Platinum standards by 2024.

The ongoing expansion of waste recycling in pursuit of zero waste to landfill across the entire operations reaffirms Samsung SDI’s pledge for environment-friendly management declared in October last year.

The declaration outlined two major themes – response to climate change and resource circularity – and eight pursuant specific tasks which have been vigorously implemented. The Zero Waste to Landfill validations effectively underpin the company’s efforts to maximize resource circularity.

“Achieving the ZWTL designations is an integral part of our environment-friendly management that will set us to be a global Top Tier company by 2030,” said Samsung SDI President and CEO Yoon-ho Choi. “We will continuously endeavor to make the world greener and sustainable through efforts in pursuit of resource circulation.”