Special-Edition JBL Flip 5 Eco is made from 90% Recycled Plastic and Features an Eco-Friendly Case

By Andy Tsui

April 22nd marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, so environmental stewardship is top of mind for consumers, companies and communities everywhere. Although many people will spend Earth Month 2020 confined to their homes to help stop the spread of COVID-19 and most traditional activities that celebrate and protect our planet are currently halted, the act of being environmentally conscious should not come to a stop.

Earth Day aside, most of us are already behaving differently in response to the pandemic by thinking twice before using paper products, conserving water and rationing materials that are difficult to obtain. Resourcefulness has become our new normal, and the collective impact of our actions is beginning to show. While the Coronavirus has had tremendous negative repercussions, the shelter-in-place restrictions have also led to a dramatic decrease in air pollution and energy use around the world.

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These recent events have demonstrated that each and every one of us has the ability – and the responsibility – to make an impact by caring for the environment year round. This philosophy and increasing consumer demand for “green” products and designs was what inspired HARMAN’s latest contribution to the sustainability movement: the JBL Flip 5 Eco edition, which is our first portable Bluetooth speaker made out of 90% recycled plastic. The Flip 5 Eco comes in ‘Ocean’ blue and ‘Forest’ green, and the special edition speakers are packaged in eco-friendly packaging, including a protective case made of biodegradable materials.

HARMAN thinks about sustainability broadly as a way to help our company, customers and communities endure and thrive for years to come, and this step towards producing products made from recycled materials and shipped in environmentally-conscious packaging is an important milestone for the company. Different engineering teams from across HARMAN undertook many months of research and conducted rigorous experiments to find the perfect materials and techniques to build this eco-friendly product and case that conforms to the global 3R1D (recycle, re-use, reduce and degradable) sustainability standard.

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The process wasn’t easy. We worked hard to identify the right kind of recycled plastics that would allow us to make the Flip 5 more sustainable without compromising the speaker’s signature sound or award-winning features and while maintaining the high quality standards JBL is known for. The biggest challenge was preserving the speaker’s compact size while ensuring durability, which HARMAN engineers achieved by working closely with top material suppliers and manufacturers around the globe. The JBL Flip 5 Eco will be available in the coming months, and the original Flip 5, which also features the eco-friendly packaging, is already in the market.

HARMAN is proud to be a leader to create eco-friendly packaging for portable speakers. We chose the Flip 5 as pioneer because it’s the #1 portable speaker in the world and so has the potential to make a significant impact. But this is just the beginning. HARMAN continues the effort to evaluate the use of recyclable plastics and biodegradable materials in more consumer electronic products, and we’re looking forward to continuing our sustainability journey.

The development process of the Flip 5 Eco has laid the groundwork for future innovation, but we acknowledge that our collective responsibility to build a more sustainable future is never complete. As the global response to COVID-19 has demonstrated, we have the ability to make drastic changes very quickly by working together towards a common goal. Each time any of us acts in the best interests of our planet – even from the safety of our own home – we’re planting the seeds for a better tomorrow.