Josh Ives, VP of Customer Experience, and Jenni Chun, Manager of Corporate Regulatory & Environmental Affairs, both of Samsung Electronics America, accept the 2017 Cutting Edge Champion Award and Gold Tier Award for the company’s continued sustainability efforts. Presenting the awards was Barnes Johnson, Director of the EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery.

The Galaxy Upcycling programme allows Galaxy phone owners to retrofit the hardware and software of antiquated, used Galaxy phones into new technology products such as closed-circuit TVs, gaming consoles, and IoT devices. The programme puts the tools for transforming devices into new technology in consumers’ hands by providing them with necessary software changes and suggested hardware changes that enable new functionality. The programme was created from the company’s innovation hub, C-Lab; and will launch in 2018. The Cutting Edge Champion Award was presented to Samsung for the Galaxy Upcycling programme’s innovative and environmentally responsible ways to use a product’s materials throughout its entire life cycle. Samsung has been the exclusive honouree of the Cutting Edge Champion Award since the award’s inception in 2017.

“In an effort to curb e-waste and extend the lifecycle of our existing technology, we introduced the Galaxy Upcycling programme which repurposes technology resources into new devices,” said Michael Lawder, Senior Vice President of Customer Care at Samsung Electronics America. “We’re honoured to receive the Cutting Edge Champion Award for this programme and our efforts to extend a products’ life-cycle by repurposing its functionality.”

The second distinction was given to Samsung for the company’s long-term commitment to the proper recycling of e-waste in the U.S. In 2016, the company’s electronics recycling programme collected and responsibly recycled over 53 million kilograms of e-waste in the U.S., which made it one of the world’s biggest collectors of e-waste. Samsung is being recognised in this category for the fourth year in a row.

“Samsung’s creative reinvention of old electronics through their unique upcycling programme is environmental ingenuity at its finest,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “I commend Samsung for their innovative efforts to turn old smartphones into new technology products, and I encourage others to follow their lead.”

The awards were presented in Las Vegas at a ceremony during CES 2018.

Samsung’s TV history goes back almost half a century, and it’s the market leader for nearly a decade now. What was your first TV like? Any TVs you recognize above? Let us know in the comments below.