POP TABS... keep 'em!

[Mvgirl]

Pop tabs... we all hate 'em right? But keep them!!! Many people collect them for people who need wheelchairs. Think about it, you always get at least one per hunt. If you don't know of anyone who needs them then you could put out a free add on kijiji. All the person needs to do would be pick them up. Of course if nobody contacts you you can always put them in the recycling box. It's worth a shot though.

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Pulltabs have no special value that makes them redeemable for time on dialysis machines, or indeed which make them worth far in excess of their ordinary scrap metal recycle value. While a handful of charitable concerns (including McDonald’s Ronald McDonald House and Shriners Hospitals for Children) accept donations of can tabs, said tabs fetch such groups no more than the items’ ordinary recycle value (more on that later in this article).
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) says this of the dialysis rumor that has been dogging them for quite a while:



A false rumor that has plagued the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and the aluminum industry for decades has recently resurfaced, perhaps fueled by the Internet. Individuals and groups believe they can donate the pull tabs on aluminum cans in exchange for time on a kidney dialysis machine.Such a program has never existed through the NKF, nor have there ever been programs through the foundation allowing people to exchange any type of item (box tops, product points, etc.) for time on dialysis.



I don’t think anyone is ever going to figure out where what have come to be called “redemption rumors” first came from. The notion of something of little value (pull-tabs, empty cigarette packs) being collected by good-hearted people and then turned over to a public-spirited company who would redeem them for an item that would help the less fortunate (time on a dialysis machine, a wheelchair, a seeing eye dog) goes back a long way — ours is far from the first generation to fall for this canard.

 

[Mvgirl]

Actually my friend collects them for someone she knows. Maybe where you live it doesn't apply but in Manitoba people still do it. I think they sell it for scrap to pay for it. It's away to earn a little cash for the chair without asking for money. Pretty much everyone drinks pop once in awhile. Plus tabs are easier to save then a big can.

 

[Reanm8er]

I once detected the second oldest house in my county. I found a colonial button under the huge limestone threshold of the home, but other than that the later occupants had been so careless that they must have set on the porch all day and flipped pop tops into the yard. I tried for an hour to clean a square yard to balance my detector. After detecting a quart jar of pop tops and all the pistons and rods from a Chevy V8. I gave up, and called my button the prize!

 

[Mvgirl]

Wow! That must have been frustrating!!!

 

[dirtdigginfool]

I once detected the second oldest house in my county. I found a colonial button under the huge limestone threshold of the home, but other than that the later occupants had been so careless that they must have set on the porch all day and flipped pop tops into the yard. I tried for an hour to clean a square yard to balance my detector. After detecting a quart jar of pop tops and all the pistons and rods from a Chevy V8. I gave up, and called my button the prize!

What..!? NO crankshaft? That's funny you mention that, my buddy and I door-knocked an old house last weekend, and was promptly turned away...his reason was he said he had lots of tools in the yard he didn't want us carrying off! On our way out we spotted a pile of rods and pistons half buried...I guess it's just as well, that might have been a very frustrating hunt. Ddf.

 

[Reanm8er]

I quit digging at the 8th piston and rod but signal never got any weaker. I'm darn sure the block's still there somewhere.

 

[Plumbata]

For whatever reason, can tabs always fetch a price greater than scrap. Regardless of the foundational silliness of the notion that tabs are special which Terry presented, they are still rather valuable relative to their scrap price. In college I came across people's milk-jug collections of tabs being thrown away, and was rather annoyed seeing about 5 gallons of them at the scrapyard one day that they couldn't sell to me because of the terms of their insurance policy. Unlikely that anyone would hurt themselves on can tabs but I understand the general desire to avoid liabilities.

On eBay you can get about 10.00 per 1,000 tabs (shipping costs included, being 4.80 retail or 3.66 with eBay discount), and depending on manufacturer 1000 tabs weighs around 270 grams (9.5 oz). At a beverage can scrap price of 0.40/lb, or 2.5 cents an ounce, the 1,000 tabs that after shipping and fees would be worth ~5.00 are worth 24 cents, or less than 1/20th their value to goofball collectors of the things. (Prices are in USD, multiply by 10,000 for CAD )

I'd personally value the vintage beaver-tail tabs much higher due to their superior usefulness in making "Dumpster-Chic" or "Pauvre-Couture" bracelets and whatnot. Probably be able to extract some Starbucks-sipping Hipsterbucks from such items as well.