We have a million ideas. We keep the ones we love most stashed close and ONE DAY when we have time after this story is done, we will pull out the next one.
Recycling seems to be the name of the game, and I agree wholeheartedly. Whenever I have a new idea, I try to stuff as many older resources into it as I can: old character names, designs, color schemes, etc. It's great when I come up with "crowd stories" that have lots of main characters, because then I can salvage a ton of old ideas at once~. ^^
Yass reuse or recycle but kinda improve or change the ideas better in a way for me personally. I don't like reusing old ideas very exactly.
most of my "old ideas" tend to be things that I honestly don't wanna look back or like yes,, like what you said, stories I grew out of and lost interest with reasons. Some were even things that I definitely had a bad experience with when I shared these "ideas" with some old friends.
There was always a reason why I dropped or cancelled using it.
but this recent comic I am starting today is a precious old "idea" I had been keeping 10 years ago in my silly drawing book (over the next years I never knew I was going to get back to it in forever because of how silly I think it is) BUT now,, I stumbled upon it, realized how much it made me happy back in the days so, I am reusing the idea with more development, logic and all seriousness pff. I am honestly very happy to reuse this idea, improve it and kinda also brings me more to my good memories when I was younger.
((probably gonna make a meme out of this comparing 2009 version of idea and 2019 version of idea showing my silly childhood art vs now lmao))
At this point... I try to forget about them. Not completely, but put them really far from me.
My brain is working constantly at full intensity and it tires me terribly. Also difficult to concentrate on a single project when so many ideas, new and old, are turning in my head constantly. My main effort is always to clean up, sort, store, throw away. Otherwise I can't perform at all.
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I’ve turned my old characters and refined and changed their original story to turn into a One-Shot. This way I can get the hang of making manga before I make a serialized story that’s really important to me.
Use them if they're actually good and I just lacked the skills to use them.
Dismantle them for parts, if they're not good but some little aspects were interesting and can be developed.
Toss them if they're unsalvageable.
I agree with recycling stories. Keeping notes on those harts/half written stories are good things for me to come back to every once in a while and see if they're worth it or not. In fact, that's how my novel here on Tapas was created - from this old story I found when I was reading old stuff.
Though I have to say that there's a couple of notes that I wrote many years ago and I still read them and think "Yup, this is good as it is", but I haven't yet written those stories yet..maybe one day!
I try to save the old ideas, drafts and characters for reusing, or inspiring - even if I outgrew the initial idea, or now see gapping plot holes. That doesn't mean the concept can't be polished up with my current knowlege and experience if I still find it interesting enough and worth telling.
I think I never droped an old idea they still lives in my brain, what I didn't do yet was publish them. But every single thing I created is resting and being evolved inside my mind as we speak.I remember them all.
If i see an old idea has potential, i polish it with the knowledge of art/writing i have nowadays. (gotta say i`m considering to restart practicing drawing)
I'm someone who gets so easily attached to my characters, so it hurts when I have to drop them 
Though I understand, sometimes your old writing/character designs can be cringy or unoriginal which forces you to change or drop them completely
And when you guys say recycle, what parts of a character concept do you like reuse? In my experience, I've reused designs, names, and concepts (aka roles or titles, like "mentor who helps the protagonist" or "cool ninja"). Call me uncreative but I just can't help but trying to make things work. Even if it's something that I would never mean to share
I don't think I've ever reused names or designs, the latter especially given they were fandom. But I usually recycled personality traits, quirks, mannerism type stuff as well as some fashion choices for characters especially one that had distinct "looks" if that makes sense.
I've definitely done this ^ sometimes it's a recycled cliche other times it's the way a character impacts another from a rivalry, to a loss or the motivator or obstacle to the protagonist
i think the most I've ever done with repurposing a character was slipping old oc's or unused oc's into the background mostly for myself. never in a way that they stand out but having them assume those small roles like barista at the protag's favorite coffee shop or rando that gets knocked over in a chase scene. it's likely the only way my one large ensemble cast will ever live on till i find a way to rewrite their story
I try not to deliberately reuse ideas because I don't want to shove the ideas in places where the don't belong, I try to keep it as natural as possible.
yeah! i feel the same way! 
i store them, keep a record like a notepad file or in my cp 
i might need them when im stuck and out of ideas 
I always keep a journal around me and that's where I write all my random ideas in!
While writing scripts for my comics, sometimes there are lines that sound too cool to just be omitted so I cut them and drop them off a separate document file where all the "random" scripts are. When I run of ideas, it's one of the documents I refer to for sparks and maybe I can use some lines from there.
When making my scifi/fantasy story, I gave myself full creative liberty to do whatever I wanted, so I made it possible for almost all of the stories I ever made be set into the same universe. And it works because Everdream is set millions of years in the future from now, where Earth is nothing more than an old legend. I've also reutilized several elements from what I like to call "the prototype" to my story, which was a colorless comic called Espherio.
Anyway, here it goes in case you feel interested:
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