Samsung recently showcased what is known as upcycling. They claim that upcycling is better than recycling because it uses the devices in other ways. The upcycling program was demonstrated on old Samsung S5 devices. A conversion was made from old phones into other products such as an automated fish tank monitor and bitcoin miners. The devices had their android counterpart stripped away and an new operating system was installed instead. The new operating system uses less resources which allowed smoother operation for the new software.
The current method of recycling electronic devices is not very efficient and often times leaves the user with less rather than more. When users decide to upcycle instead, they are simply repurposing their electronics to better suit their needs. Repurposing is very popular already, and its slowly moving into electronics. Phones are able to be re-purposed already without upcycling but upcycling allows a smooth user experience versus a chunky android experience. Whether you should or should not upcycle is very controversial because when upcycling is done, your old device serves a new purpose, but it serves only that purpose. Androids in general are extremely flexible in regards to how they can be used.
In the example of the upcycled fish tank monitor, the android had new sensors that allowed it to monitor the quality of the water. By upcycling, a new feature was introduced onto the device. Samsung is working with the community to create a community of people and ideas to upcycle their devices versus recycling their old phones. The movement from Samsung may ignite a change in the current method of how we treat old electronics. If this movement gets big, other large companies such as LG, Sony, Microsoft, and Apple may follow suit. Currently this idea is in the works and is not completely available to the public. Please stay tuned as we will update you with more information when it becomes available.