Samsung Electro-Mechanics, First in MLCC Industry to Obtain 'Zero Waste Landfill' Certification

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced on the 4th that its Busan plant has been certified with the 'Zero Waste to Landfill (ZWTL)' Gold grade by UL, an internationally accredited safety and environmental organization. This certification is unique in the multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) and substrate industry.

The Zero Waste to Landfill certification assigns grades such as Platinum (100%), Gold (99~95%), and Silver (94~90%) based on the proportion of waste generated at the site that is reused as resources, serving as an indicator to evaluate a company's resource circulation efforts. The average resource circulation rate of Samsung Electro-Mechanics' Busan plant is 97.2%, which is more than 10 percentage points higher than the domestic average recycling rate of 86.5%.

A worker is working in the cleanroom at Samsung Electro-Mechanics Busan Plant. Photo by Samsung Electro-Mechanics

Since 2019, Samsung Electro-Mechanics has set a zero waste discharge goal and continuously invested in waste recycling facilities, successfully developing new fuels. In particular, to recycle trace amounts of copper in wastewater sludge (sediment generated during sewage treatment), the company enhanced the copper coagulation facility at the wastewater treatment plant and installed a high-efficiency dehydration facility, enabling the recycling of 150 tons of wastewater sludge monthly.

Kyung Kyehyun, President of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, stated, "For sustainable management, we prioritize stable profits, the pursuit of happiness for social members, and the realization of environmental responsibility. We will enhance our status as a green IT company that considers the environment throughout all stages of product manufacturing by adopting full product lifecycle responsibility."

Samsung Electro-Mechanics operates a dedicated ESG organization, the Sustainable Management Office, establishing data-driven roadmaps and systematically practicing social responsibility management. The company's sustainable management activities have been consistently recognized, including 12 consecutive years of selection in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI), four consecutive years of highest rating in the Carbon Disclosure Project, 10 consecutive years of selection in the FTSE4Good Index, and an A grade in the integrated ESG rating by the Korea Corporate Governance Service in 2020.