# how to break the news about can tabs? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 10, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190 "2003-12-10T20:23:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nineiron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e56c9b/32.png) [@nineiron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nineiron)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/1 "2003-12-10T20:23:19Z")
Since this is sort of a poll, I guess it goes in this forum… The school where I teach has, naturally, a teachers’ lounge. In this lounge sits a coffee can with a sign on it urging people to donate their can tabs, so they can go to such-and-such charity. I have with me the printed article from snopes that de-bunks the whole thing. But I haven’t revealed it yet. I asked one co-worker how to broach the topic, and she told me that it’s best just to let the tab-collector think that she’s doing some good in the world. But I’m having a hard time keeping this to myself. Should I keep quiet, or let the truth be known? ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/2 "2003-12-10T20:26:28Z")
Just tape the Snopes article to the can and let people draw their own conclusions. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/3 "2003-12-10T20:30:09Z")
What is a can tab? I would break the bad news, as the tab collector sounds like a nice person, and would probably redirect their effort towards other more fruitful endeavors. ---
**Author:** ![AmbushBug](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ambushbug/32/4600_2.png) [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/4 "2003-12-10T20:45:20Z")
[This](http://www.snopes.com/business/redeem/pulltabs.asp) is the Snopes article. It notes that the Ronald McDonald House (which has been the culprit behind tabbing at my childrens’ schools) website claims they get $474 per million tabs collected. So, I’d put a sticky note on the coffee can reading: “21,097 tabs gets this charity $10. Put $10 in here now and you can skip collecting the tabs from your soda cans for the rest of your life.” ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/5 "2003-12-10T20:57:49Z")
There are little cardboard Ronald McDonald houses all over our company’s campus (three buildings) specifically to collect tabs. I mean, these are little houses created and distributed by Ronald McDonald House. Those things fill up fast, as there’s at least one in every break room, by most vending machines and in the main gathering places around here. I’d bet that our company alone manages to collect hundreds of thousands (if not more than a million) tabs in a year. And that’s a few hundred bucks the charity wouldn’t otherwise get. So where’s the harm in collecting them? ---
**Author:** ![jesleigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@jesleigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jesleigh)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/6 "2003-12-11T03:03:46Z")
The Ronald McDonald house does collect the tabs…it has been one of Pi Theta Kappa service projects for the last 2 years. For every gallon, I believe, one child will receive a chemotreatment. Also, another large hospital in our area does the same thing. I hate to go against snopes, but you might want to check up before you “break the news” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rhum\_Runner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rhum\_Runner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhum_Runner)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/7 "2003-12-11T03:33:45Z")
The sad thing here is that a _teacher_ would beleive in this. As Snopes points out, the collection of these tabs is hardly worth the effort. If your school has fifty teachers, in the building five days a week for forty weeks a year each drinking and donating six can tabs a day, in an entire year you’d only gather 60,000 tabs, worth about $28. No child left behind, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![WILLASS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/54ee81/32.png) [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/8 "2003-12-11T03:37:02Z")
**jesleigh** I hate to tell you this but a gallon of aluminium would not pay for a chemotherapy treatment. Snopes is a very respected source of information - have you read the Snopes article? As they point out it would be better to collect pennies in place of the aluminium tabs, if you did you would have $10,000 per million pennies rather than $300 per million tabs. I know people may have put a lot of effort into the collection of tabs but wouldn’t it be better to change what you collect sooner rather than face dissapointment in the future? ---
**Author:** ![jesleigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@jesleigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jesleigh)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/9 "2003-12-11T04:47:05Z")
[here](http://www.rmhc.org/kids/poptab_collection/index.html) I’m not debating how it works, or how much it makes, but just the fact that it is a legitimate charity. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/10 "2003-12-11T05:55:36Z")
How many tabs do they have? Because if there are a few hundred, you could put them in a sock and use it to beat some sense into the person who put the can there. Or you could just print out the Snopes page and put it in the can, but my way is \much\ more satisfying. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/11 "2003-12-11T06:28:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jesleigh \* > **For every gallon, I believe, one child will receive a chemotreatment.** “Sorry, Mr. Jones, but we’re one gallon of pop tabs short of curing your cancer. Looks like you’re just going to have to die.” ---
**Author:** ![cookeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@cookeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cookeze)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/12 "2003-12-11T08:53:14Z")
On the Ronald McDonald site it says: “To date, over 400 million pop tabs have been collected, generating over $300,000.” So that comes to a dollar for 1333 tabs? Are they crazy? Why are they collecting something so worthless? ---
**Author:** ![spacezinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@spacezinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spacezinator)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/13 "2003-12-11T09:04:56Z")
Forgive me for pointing this out, but they are not worthless if they have worth, no matter how small it is. 400 million tabs collected is quite a large number. Even if it’s a slow climb, it’s something for nothing. Getting even a dollar from most people is hard enough. It’s more of a novelty and easier to give something that you plan to throw away. It must work; $300,000 for something that’s not so worthless. ---
**Author:** ![cookeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@cookeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cookeze)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/14 "2003-12-11T09:24:54Z")
Okay, but if each donor had just reached into his pocket and fished out a penny, instead of ripping off the tab, they’d have $4,000,000. ---
**Author:** ![spacezinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@spacezinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spacezinator)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/15 "2003-12-11T10:39:11Z")
If money worked, Toys for Tots would pull in a whole lot more over the holidays. I agree, a penny would be easier, but how many pennies make it into the Jerry’s Kids box at the supermarket? Just the fact that 400 million of those were collected is crazy. Imagine if each one was a dollar. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/16 "2003-12-11T16:14:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WILLASS \* > \*\ ***jesleigh** I hate to tell you this but a gallon of aluminium would not pay for a chemotherapy treatment. \*\* She’s not saying it does, she’s saying that for every gallon of tabs collected McDonalds DONATES the amount for a chemotherapy treatment. What the real issue is is if they’d donate the amount anyway as part of their charity budget. We had a similar discussion a few weeks ago about the Yoplait lids that people were supposed to mail in so money could go to breast cancer research. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/17 "2003-12-12T02:59:36Z")
Did you bother to read the _entire_ article? Like, for example, this part: > [@](#): > > **Seeing as how folks were bound and determined to collect pull-tabs for charity** , in 1987 McDonald’s found it a good idea to get into the act. Their Pop Tab Collection program is a response to pull tab mania, and although its web presence perpetuates the myth that the tabs are made of a purer form of aluminium than the rest of the can, it at least provides folks with a place to dump the tabs they’ve been hoarding over the years in the belief they could use them to purchase dialysis time for an ailing child. Bolding mine. RMH will accept tabs, true, but only because people were already collecting them due to the urban legend. That doesn’t make it an efficient, effective or useful form of charity. It’s purely a “feel-good” thing for the donors and I’d bet the main benefit to RMH is good public relations rather than any sort of financial help. It’s an “If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em” philosophy. > [@](#): > > Anyone gathering pull tabs for charity would do far better to collect whole cans; accumulating nothing but pull tabs is like eschewing quarters in order to collect pennies. And for [Cecil’s](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_077.html) take on it… > [@](#): > > But the public hasn’t gotten the message. Supposedly responsible people–e.g., the honchoes at your school–will organize pull tab collection drives without ever bothering to get the whole story. Urban legends expert Jan Brunvand reports that in 1989 a Minneapolis VFW post organized a pull tab collection drive for the local Ronald McDonald House. When Brunvand asked the organizers why they didn’t tell people to save whole cans, they lamely replied that there were “hygiene problems” and that people liked mailing in the tabs, even though the postage often exceeded the value of the aluminum. In other words, it’s not important to DO good as long as people FEEL good. Excuse me while I grind my teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/18 "2003-12-12T03:28:43Z")
Uh… gently. Very gently. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Turbo\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Turbo\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turbo_Dog)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/19 "2003-12-12T04:43:16Z")
As I understand it, for X amount of pull tabs, RMH donates X amount of cash. I don’t see a debunking here. ---
**Author:** ![Rhum\_Runner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rhum\_Runner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhum_Runner)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190/20 "2003-12-12T06:14:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Turbo Dog \* > \*\*As I understand it, for X amount of pull tabs, RMH donates X amount of cash. > > I don’t see a debunking here. \*\* Yes, if you bring in sixty five billion tabs, you get $0.42. It is not worth the effort. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-break-the-news-about-can-tabs/218190.md?page=2)