White goods are pretty well recycled in the US. I took a little refrigerator and dehumidifier, which both contained freon, to the scrap yard in a small town. They have their accepting set up so that they charge a recovery fee on the freon (which then they sell, but whatever). The scrap value of those appliances was less than the freon fees, but the paymaster worked it out so that I got 50 cents back or whatever.<p>That doesn&#x27;t explain what they will do with a washer, but it demonstrates that even a small operation is relatively sophisticated in what it is up to, and appliances are generally worth enough for them to deal with.