January 27, 2012

Students win Austin Energy awards for refrigerator recycling art projects

Students often bring home information to their parents about recycling and can have a direct influence on their views about the environment. With that in mind, Austin Energy asked high school students in art classes throughout its service area to use their creativity to depict the importance of recycling inefficient refrigerators by painting their interpretations on refrigerator doors.

Students in the 10 schools that participated created a variety of unique and colorful designs from a theme that used images from a Mexican bingo card with a cactus to depict the familiar recycle and reuse symbol, to woodcuts arranged to signify the Earth.

The winning entries will be displayed all of February in the baggage claim area at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to raise awareness about recycling inefficient refrigerators. The doors also will be displayed at Sears retail and appliance stores and at community events throughout the year such as Earth Day.

City of Austin Chief Sustainability Officer Lucia Athens, EnviroMedia President and Co-Founder Kevin Tuerff, and Austin Energy Vice President Karl Rábago judged the entries and selected the Judges’ Choice. Austin Energy staff also awarded prizes for Marketing Excellence, Best Interpretation, Most Original, and the Emerging Artist Award. The winners are:

• Judges Choice: Maximiliano Sarabia Cabrera and Archer Black (Anderson High School)
• Marketing Excellence: Sarah Christensen and Owen Summers (McCallum High School)
• Best Interpretation: Dallin Phelps, Tran Vu, Isabelle Griffith, Julia McIntosh, Diwu Zhou (McNeil High School)
• Most Original: Brittany Stamey (Akins High School)
• Emerging Artist: Gina Senese and Lucy Ellis (Westlake High School)

The awards were announced at an event at Austin Energy on Friday, Jan. 27. See photos from the event.

Austin Energy offers residential customers a $50 rebate to recycle old but working refrigerator/freezers. An inefficient refrigerator can use three times as much electricity as newer, more efficient models. Since the rebate program began in 2005, Austin Energy has recycled more than 22,000 refrigerators diverting more than 2,100 tons of recyclable metals from the landfills and more than 8,000 pounds of ozone-depleting refrigerants. Austin Energy also has reduced peak energy demand during the hottest part of the summer by more than 5 megawatts — or the equivalent energy used by 2,500 homes at peak — by recycling the inefficient appliances.