Years ago, my landlord kindly replaced my refrigerator that was a 1950's (I think) model with no brand name (the kind that you had to "defrost" the freezer periodically. This coincided with "mop the kitchen floor day" for reasons that you may probably imagine). More importantly, it was the kind with a door that covered both the freezer on top and the refrigerator on the bottom, and the freezer door was lost to history, so setting the temperature was quite a balancing act.

Anyway, when the brand new thing arrived, I had the delivery people help me take the old one to the curb (we can still do that in New Orleans, or at least we could then). Literally before it hit the sidewalk, some dude pulled up and asked "does that work?" I told him that it did, kinda, and he told us to hold on while he got his truck and took it away.

I like to think that the old refrigerator is still pumping away, maybe 70+ years old, keeping someone's meat frozen or someone's beer cold (but not likely both at the same time). Recycling didn't start in the 21st century after all..:)