Why did [do] people collect pull tabs from Aluminum Cans for Charity? (1 Viewer)

[Jason L.]

I've been in the Middle East/Southwest Asia for the past 40 months, and every can of soda that I have had from here [I would assume they come from the UAE] has a pull tab. Apparently, they haven't caught on to the latest aluminum can technology.

That led me to thinking back to my junior high/high school/college days where someone always seemed to be collecting these tabs for charity. 50 pull tabs could pay for an hour of kidney dialysis - or something like that.

There were never any monetary donations that were asked for - just pull tabs.

I always wondered what the heck you could do with a pull tab.

Now, I ask this question to the collective intelligence of the HTF - What's the story with those damn pull tabs? Was/Is this some sort of scam? Do people still ask for these - or has modern aluminum can technology made this obsolete?

 

[JeremyErwin]

straight dope
snopes

 

[John Alvarez]

I have collected them for years. One of the managers here has a daughter in 4H and they collect them for Ronald McDonald house. They get 5 cents for each tab. I know in the past my kids have collected them for kidney dyalisis.

 

[Greg_R]

urban legend. Check Jeremy's links...

 

[Dan Keefe]

nonsense...I don't care what snopes says...My local hospital takes these things...seriously. You would think if it wasn't true, they would tell people to stop bringing them in...I cannot imagine a hospital taking 10's of thousands of these things if they din't use them...

 

[Chu Gai]

Maybe they just throw them out?

 

[John Alvarez]

I asked my manager about them. Here is his response.

"Not sure about dialysis situation...........but the tabs that we are collecting for the 4-H kids are
turned over to the Ronald McDonald House here in jax. The RM organization redeems them
through JEA for a reduction of energy costs and bills associated with electricity and/or services
provided by JEA.

They turned in nearly 100,000 tabs in which I think the value to them was $10,000.

Scott"

 

[BrianW]

But why the tabs and not the entire can? If the value in the tab is the aluminum content, which is presumably the case, why not collect entire cans?

I've seen people collect tabs from modern cans (meaning they had to bend and break the tabs off) for charity, and then throw the rest of the can away. In what world does that make sense?

 

[Linda Thompson]

From the RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES website:

http://www.rmhc.org/content/rmhc/ind...ollection.html

 

[Joseph S]

Yep. It doesn't make sense not to take the whole can or set it up through local recycler. Heck, buy cans in IL, IN, WI on Mother's day and bring them next door to Michigan for free 10c per can.

 

[Jason L.]

A few weeks ago I was on a flight and I noticed one of the stewardesses taking the tabs off the empty aluminum cans. I wanted to tell her that it was a waste of time, but then I figured that I would keep this urban legend going.

She probably wouldn't have believed me anyway.

 

[MarkHastings]

 

[Dennis*G]

Our local RM house collets pop tops and when they get enough send them to the recyclers for cash, collecting the whole can would take up too much room for them so they just want pop tops.

Now I suppose I could start collecting the entire can and then taking them to the recyclers and then giving all the cash to RMH, but who has the time/room?

 

[John Alvarez]

It's not a myth if you look at their site.
I would imagine she was taking them for some kind of inventory.