Google commits itself to new environmental goals, including plastic-free packaging, by 2025

It seems that every smartphone manufacturer is jumping on the sustainability bandwagon of late. Following Apple's decision to ditch the charging brick to do its bit to save the environment, Google has unveiled its plans to make its smartphones more environmentally friendly. Announced via a blog post, Google will combine climate-neutral delivery with 100% recyclable materials used in its packaging to reduce its environmental impact. The company hopes that eliminate plastic in all its packaging by 2025, too.

Google has pledged to use at least 50% recycled or renewable plastic in its products by that date, too. Additionally, the company claims that it is already making all products, at least in part, from recycled materials, a goal it hoped to achieve by 2022. All Google and Nest products unveiled this year contain recycled raw materials, according to the blog post.

In that vein, Google has used 100% recycled aluminium in producing the back panels of the Pixel 5, and 70% recycled plastic in its new Nest Audio products. Finally, Google states that the final assembly manufacturing sites putting together 'Made by Google hardware' will have UL 2799 Zero Waste certification by 2022 - a certification that ensures that much of the waste generated during production will be recycled.

While that all may sound promising, the use of conflict materials and the growing volume of e-waste remain environmental concerns in smartphone production. Even though it is five-years-old, Android Authority's article does a great job of explaining these costs and others, which go far beyond the use of plastics in smartphone production.