Plastic reduction and elimination initiative: Promoting a circular economy for plastics

Every year, an estimated 11 million metric tons of plastics enter the oceans, while 13 million metric tons of plastics accumulate in the soil. Plastics can now be found everywhere, from the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean point, to Mount Everest, the highest mountain peak.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message for World Environment Day 2025, "Plastic pollution is choking our planet – harming ecosystems, well-being, and the climate. Plastic waste clogs rivers, pollutes the ocean, and endangers wildlife."

To help tackle global plastic pollution, Huawei has launched a plastic reduction and elimination initiative. We adopt a "Reduce, Eliminate, Reuse, and Recycle" strategy to promote a circular economy for plastics. We have incorporated plastic reduction and elimination requirements into our product design, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and campus operations processes. We have also comprehensively reviewed all products and packaging that contain plastics and partnered with suppliers to develop innovative technical solutions and recycling models that can reduce or replace virgin plastic without compromising product reliability or supply continuity. In 2025, we continued to employ methods, including materials science, specification design, packaging simulation, intelligent stacking, and fulfillment model optimization, to cut the amount of plastics used in packaging by over 1,500 metric tons.

[Reduce] Streamline packaging with a "less is more" approach

Huawei is designing smaller and lighter packaging to boost the product-to-package ratio and cut down on materials.

• Design optimization: We have developed a packaging downsizing and palletizing tool that automates pack and stack design to achieve minimalist packaging. We have also integrated requirements to improve product-to-package ratios and minimize the use of single-use plastics into our eco-friendly packaging design standards, which we are actively rolling out for our products. For example, through design optimization, the product-to-package ratio of HUAWEI Mate X5 smartphones has increased by 7.5% compared with HUAWEI Mate Xs 2 smartphones. For our passive antenna products, we have introduced mechanical simulation and shifted from full-coverage packaging to tailored fitting: we provide extra protection for damage-prone areas while moderately reducing materials used in non-critical areas. This eliminates excessive packaging while maintaining product protection during transportation.
• Process innovation: Huawei's TaiShan 200 servers powered by Kunpeng processors use integrated industrial packaging instead of individual packaging. This can reduce the packaging volume of a single product by 52% and plastic usage by 45%.

• Specification optimization: We now ship the steel straps of our smart watches as individual links packaged as accessories and have standardized strap lengths across models, reducing watch packaging volume by 17%. We have also miniaturized incoming cable specifications, cutting our data cable packaging volume by 20%.
  

• Logistics optimization: Our intelligent 3D packing system SmartLoader uses intelligent algorithms to create an optimal solution based on order and product data to pack products into cartons in the most space-efficient manner, reducing carton volume by more than 20% and increasing the loading rates of transport vehicles by 30%.

[Eliminate] Replace plastics with green materials, making packaging degradable

The single-use plastics used in traditional packaging may persist in soil for centuries, greatly burdening ecosystems. Huawei is working hard to eliminate the use of single-use plastics in its product packaging and switch to degradable paper packaging.

• Eliminating plastic from device packaging: By removing waterproof bags from courier and logistics packaging and replacing plastics with paper, Huawei has achieved zero-plastic packaging for HUAWEI Pura Ultra, HUAWEI Mate RS, and HUAWEI Mate X series smartphones, as well as all tablet models and flagship PCs. We are also working to eliminate plastics that consumers might not even notice. For example, many packaging boxes are coated with a thin plastic film to protect printed text and graphics from scratches. Our packaging designers have replaced this film with a special aqueous coating that provides the same protection without polluting the environment or relying on single-use plastics. This technology is already used in our Pura series smartphone packaging. With this change, we can reduce the use of single-use plastics by 46.3 metric tons for every 10 million phones produced.
• Plastic-free packaging for ICT products: Huawei has introduced the industry's first plastic-free packaging solution for wireless products through the use of innovative materials and structural design. Key initiatives include:

  - Replacing EPP plastic foam buffers used for baseband units (BBUs), active antenna units (AAUs), and remote radio units (RRUs) with foldable, embedded, and reinforced pulp-molded structures, achieving 100% plastic-free packaging for critical equipment.
  - Pioneering high‑performance clamshell packaging in semi-dry pressed molded pulp made from virgin white fibers. The material is sulfur- and chlorine-free, safe and environmentally friendly, and can fully replace traditional PET plastic packaging for optical modules.
  - Broadly adopting natural, plant-based auxiliary packaging materials, such as kraft paper packing tape, cotton-linen fiber strapping, and plant-fiber pads, to replace plastic-based auxiliary packaging materials.

This solution reduces plastic use in wireless product packaging by 89% and, as verified through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), lowers packaging carbon emissions by 87.2%, setting a benchmark for green, low-carbon development in the communications industry.

[Reuse] Use standard load carriers to give new life to used materials

Packaging recycling and reuse are critical to a circular economy. It helps maximize resource utilization and shift away from the linear "take–make–use–dispose" model. Huawei has established a packaging recycling and reuse program to fully reuse and share packaging materials, significantly cutting material use.

• Reusable packaging for incoming materials: Huawei's manufacturing department is replacing single-use plastics such as polyethylene bags and foam used in packaging with standardized, recyclable materials. This packaging is now adopted in the components of our optical network terminals (ONTs) and Wi-Fi 6 devices. The packaging of the incoming materials from suppliers uses partitions to prevent collisions and scratches, making it easy to take out parts without affecting their appearance. This design eliminates more than 130 million unpacking operations that would normally be required in production lines annually. It also reduces pollution from single-use plastics while boosting productivity. The initiative has reduced the annual use of single-use plastics by 260 metric tons, equivalent to 26 million medium-sized supermarket plastic bags. This represents a reduction of about 600 metric tons of carbon emissions.

• Reusable packaging for device warehousing: We use collapsible returnable boxes for transport and delivery to replace conventional "carton + plastic void fill" packaging and reduce the use of cartons, tape, and single-use plastics. These returnable boxes can be reused multiple times and had been used for 374,000 outbound shipments by the end of 2025.

[Recycle] Use recycled materials to create a sustainable future

Plastics are essential in electronic products but remain difficult to recycle and reuse. Prioritizing eco-friendly plastics at the source is critical to a circular economy for plastics. Huawei has been using bio-based plastics in its mobile phones since 2013. Bio-based plastics are far more eco-friendly than traditional plastics because they are made from plant extracts, rather than non-renewable petroleum. This means bio-based plastics greatly reduce environmental pollution and damage. The bio-based plastics we use contain more than 30% castor oil, reducing CO₂ emissions by about 62.6% when compared with traditional plastics. We now use partially recycled or bio-based plastics in some of our products, such as the HUAWEI Mate XT and HUAWEI nova Flip smartphones, HUAWEI MateBook X Pro tablets, and HUAWEI FreeBuds Lipstick earphones. In particular, the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 uses 100% renewable nylon for the braided part of its Blue composite strap.

[Going further, together] Growing industry influence

• Shaping industry standards and policies: While advancing our own green packaging technologies, we have actively contributed to industry standardization. We have led or contributed to multiple national, industry, and social organization standards, including Technical Requirements and Classification for Green Packaging of Telecommunications Network Products, the ICT industry's first set of technical requirements and quantitative evaluation criteria for green packaging. This standard provides a unified, quantifiable basis for evaluating green packaging across the telecommunications industry.
• Hosting the Green Packaging Innovation and Sustainable Development Seminar: In May 2025, Huawei brought together internal and external packaging experts to discuss domestic and international policies and regulations, industry trends, technical challenges and roadmaps, innovative practices, and how to create a green packaging evaluation system. Participants reached consensus on the appropriate use of plastics in packaging, approaches to green packaging challenges, and methods for quantifying environmental benefits of green packaging.
• Developing a digital platform for managing plastic footprint: Credible, scientific data is key to a circular economy. Huawei is working to improve its plastic footprint tracking and statistics capabilities, identify opportunities in plastic reduction and elimination using digital tools, and work with our stakeholders to build a greener supply chain and contribute to a circular economy.