Wisconsin energy program offers $1,000 to household that recycles state's oldest refrigerator

FRANKLIN, Wis. — A Wisconsin energy program is offering $1,000 for the oldest refrigerator in the state.

Focus on Energy, a statewide program funded by utilities, is offering the prize as part of a contest aimed at encouraging residents to recycle old, energy-inefficient appliances.

Thus far, the energy program and its appliance recycling contractor, JACO Environmental, have collected about 11,000 refrigerators, with a goal of retiring 16,000. The old appliances have filled JACO Environmental's recycling center in a Franklin industrial park, and more keep coming in.

"We're so jammed in here right now," Focus on Energy's Rich Marshall said on a recent visit to the recycling center.

About 20 percent of Wisconsin homes have a second refrigerator, and many are energy wasters, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (http://bit.ly/12ODkSy ).

Along with the $1,000 for the oldest refrigerator, Focus on Energy has offered utility customers a $50 credit for each old appliance they recycle.

"We pick them up, we go to customers' houses," Marshall said. "We go down in the basement and up to second floors."

Nadine Adamski, of Green Bay, had considered trying to sell her 1930s model as an antique on eBay. Her parents owned the refrigerator, and then she and her husband used it when they were starting out. Eventually, they placed it in the family cabin near West Bend.

"We did use it occasionally, but we weren't using it much. So we just decided we would take this opportunity and move it along," Adamski said.

The recycling program breaks down old refrigerators and send parts off for disposal, incineration or reuse. For example, copper parts can be turned into copper wire. Plastic can be recycled as well.