Recently, South Korean electronics conglomerate Samsung has launched a pilot program Upcycle in the US, UK and Korea, aiming to reuse its Galaxy smartphones at home.
According to CNET, the project was announced by Samsung at the CES 2021 Consumer Electronics Show in January and received positive feedback from the community. The above idea comes from the fact that users often have the tendency to replace newer phones while many of the functions of the old phones are still usable. The reuse will help avoid wasting equipment, and at the same time reduce the amount of electronic waste in households.
An old Galaxy phone is used as a sensor for the sound of a baby crying. Photo: Samsung Through the SmartThings app, users can convert the function of Samsung Galaxy phones from 2018 and earlier into sound sensors to notify when they hear a knock on the door or the sound of a baby crying. Light sensors, which are used to adjust screen brightness, can be used to automatically control indoor lighting. Samsung also said that the battery of the old phone will be optimized to increase the uptime when the device has a new “life”. Innovative reuse is a method of reducing technology waste that is still relatively new compared to traditional ways such as giving away, returning the company or reselling. With this project, technology brands from Korea are expected to contribute to encouraging users to take advantage of old smartphones in everyday life, and help promote more of its technology ecosystem. Even so, according to technology site Ars Technica, despite its good environmentalism, the Upcycle program only allows the reuse of light and sound sensors. In fact, spontaneously, users have been devising many initiatives to reuse old phones, such as converting them into security cameras, data storage hard drives or music players.
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