The Coolest Show in Town

July / August 2008 National Building Museum Online 

The National Building Museum will be cooling off this summer when it hosts a special exhibition called The Art of Recycling: The Coolest Show in Town. From August 25 until September 2, the Great Hall will be filled with energy-efficient and environmentally-themed artwork created from old refrigerators as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s ENERGY STAR® “Recycle My Old Fridge Campaign.”

Students, institutions, utility companies, private organizations, and individual artists across the country were invited to submit decorated refrigerators or refrigerator doors through July 15 for inclusion in the exhibition. Up to 51 entries will be accepted for The Art of Recycling, and visitors to the exhibition can vote for their favorite refrigerator art. The Viewer’s Choice; Coolest; Best Use of Recycled Materials; Overall Creativity; and Best Portrayal of the Campaign Theme—“The Time is Right,” category winners will be announced at a celebration event on September 2.

In addition to the refrigerator art, videos created for the complementary “Recycle My Old Fridge Online Video Challenge” will be aired for the duration of the exhibition. Each video tells a story about why people decided to recycle their old refrigerators. Videos can be submitted through July 28 by visiting www.RecycleMyOldFridge.com. You can also vote for your favorite video on the web site through August 4, and the top three winners will be shown at the National Building Museum.

 

The ENERGY STAR® “Recycle My Old Fridge Campaign” was created to encourage consumers to help change the world by taking one more important energy-saving step. The first national refrigerator recycling campaign, “Recycle My Old Fridge” aims to bring together retailers, manufacturers, energy efficiency program sponsors, recyclers, government officials, utility companies, and consumers in a concerted effort to permanently remove old, inefficient refrigerators from the electrical supply grid and, when needed, replace them with new ENERGY STAR® qualified refrigerators.

Too often, families buy a new refrigerator but still keep their old energy-hogging one in the basement or garage for extra storage. Recycling that old fridge could reduce your energy bill by up to $100 a year. If every refrigerator in the U.S. manufactured before 1993 was replaced with a new ENERGY STAR® qualified refrigerator, the annual energy savings would be 17 billion kWh/year.  The emissions avoided would be the equivalent of taking 8.3 million cars off the road or enough cars to circle the Capital Beltway more than 390 times! If you’re interested in finding out more about recycling your old refrigerator or calculating how much your old fridge is costing you, visit the campaign’s web site, www.RecycleMyOldFridge.com.

 

Labor Day is your last chance to see the refrigerator art exhibition and vote for your favorite decorated door, so don’t miss the opportunity to take friends and family to see it—and cool down with some ice cream! Edy’s will be providing free ice cream outside the Museum September 1, while supplies last.

 

The National Building Museum is proud to host The Art of Recycling: The Coolest Show in Town as a part of its sustainability initiatives. In addition to our major environmentally-themed exhibitions such as Big & Green, The Green House, and Green Community (coming October 23, 2008), the Museum holds lecture series and symposia year-round that examine sustainable design, building and development. Building for the 21st Century, the Museum’s free noon-time lecture series, is also sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

 

To learn more about the campaign visit www.RecycleMyOldFridge.com.

For specific questions, contact info@RecycleMyOldFridge.com.

 

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