There's one on top of our vending machine here at work. There's probably one on somebody's desk at your work. I bet the secretary at your child's school has a collection bucket as well.
Somebody you know collects pop tabs, the small pieces of metal that allow you to open pop and beer cans. They're always collected for charity where, as the story goes, they help children suffering from cancer or kidney disease or some other horrible ailment.
The Ronald McDonald House is probably the largest charity that collects these tabs. While the tabs do raise some money for good causes, unlike some claims to the contrary, the pop tabs are not a magical cure-all. In fact, each is worth only a very small fraction of a cent.
And it's a pretty ineffective fundraiser as well. Considering that thousands of cans are tossed out after their tabs are ripped off instead of being recycled, people who think they're doing good are literally tossing out thousands of dollars that could otherwise be used for their charity. As one online Web site says about this pop tab myth, accumulating nothing but pull tabs is like eschewing quarters in order to collect pennies.
Some charities say the pop tab is made of a higher quality aluminum than the can, although other Web sites seems to dispute this. Either way, the tabs are worth precious little.
According to the Ronald McDonald House Charities recycling page, one pound of tabs is worth 57 cents, and one gallon of pop tabs (4,175 tabs) is worth $1.49.
Let's say we've collected 35 pounds of the tabs. According to the U.S. Postal Service, it would cost $12.10 to mail them from Joliet to Chicago using the cheapest method. After factoring out mailing costs, the net gain to the charity is $7.85. I know it's something, but wouldn't you rather just give the charity $20 and save the headache of collecting the tabs. And with gas prices where they're at, forget about driving them to Chicago as well.
Why doesn't the charity just collect the entire can? According to one Ronald McDonald House's Web site, though the whole aluminum can is valuable, the tab is much cleaner and easier to collect in large quantities than whole cans.
Fear not, though. There are a couple of solutions. According to urban legend busting site Snopes.com:
*Collect the entire can instead. Then take them to a recycling center yourself and send the check to charity
*Most schools set out to collect a million tabs. Instead, set out to collect a million pennies, at least at the end you'll have $10,000, compared to a few hundred dollars in scrap metal.
Patrick Ferrell, is a staff reporter for The Herald News in Joliet. and the Sun Times News Group. Patrick covers education and politics. When he’s not ranting about something, Patrick can usually be found watching a race or careening down a ski slope. He resides in Will County with his wife, Laura, and the couple’s Portuguese water dog, Oscar, and bloodhound named Duke.
You are right, forget the stupid tabs and collect the entire can. Scrap aluminum is over $1.00 per pound right now. If you collect 35lbs of aluminum cans and recycle them at say 1.05 per pound, you net $36.75 for your charity of choice. An empty can weighs approximately .5 oz, so you need 32 cans for one pound and 1120 cans to make 35lbs (only 46.6 cases of your beverage of choice). Actually, that sounds like a lot of work, write a check.
A lot of work, indeed. But, with the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, if the beverage of choice and the group of friends is picked correctly, 46.6 cases doesn't seem too insurmountable. But then again, you'll still only have enough for a large pizza, bottle of Tylenol and some Mylanta.