• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, April 6, 2020

How many times have you faced this dilemma?   Yes, you need a new TV set, but that means you won’t have the money for that new magazine rack. Or you won’t be able to buy the new cat house you always wanted for Snarky.

With luck, Samsung has the answer. It says it will introduce eco-friendly packaging across its pricey Lifestyle TV product line, made with dot-matrix-embedded cardboard that makes it easy to cut and twist into new shapes.

Inside every box will be instructions about how to create new products from the packaging, and references to more instructions online.

The “more” includes items that may emerge from a new international design competition, sponsored by Samsung working with Dezeen, a British architecture and design magazine. The two companies will reward the most unique and practical designs created through the Samsung packaging, and will apply the designs into Samsung's eco-packaging manual. First prize is $10,000.

The Korean electronics powerhouse won one of the CES 2020 Innovation Awards for its eco-packaging concept that promotes the efficient use of resources.

According to data, Americans discard some 90 billion cardboard boxes after one use every year. Discarded television packaging boxes are a special problem, since  their size makes them hard to handle for homeowners and sanitation workers alike.

“Consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that shares similar fundamentals and values as they do, and with our eco-packaging, we believe that we can provide our customers with a new experience that considers the environment as an important way to express themselves,” said Kangwook Chun, an executive vice president and head of a Samsung product strategy team, in a statement.

The special boxes will be the packaging used to ship and protect Samsung’s most expensive Lifestyle line: the Serif ($1,500), the Frame ($2,000) and the Sero TV sets.

The Sero was introduced in Korea last year and is coming to the U.S. The price here is uncertain, but it may run as much as $1,600.

There’s a design-forward element to the three Samsung sets. The sleek Frame ingeniously hangs on a wall and can be used to display art on video. The Serif rests on easels like a painting might. The Sero, on a pedestal, can rotate vertically or horizontally and can be used to display video art, too.