Several years ago I heard that hospitals or vet clinics or someplace like that would pay $100 for a gallon milk jug full of the things. Does anyone know if this is true?
There is a little girl in our area that needs a lung transplant. I thought this might be something I could actually contribute. Thanks.
This one has been done over and over on the boards.
Long story short: no. It is not true.
You’d be doing the girl a lot more good if you simply collected pop cans and a)returned them for their deposit, if it applies in your state or B)returned them to your local aluminum recycler for their worth in metal.
The Snopes Dope on this story – it’s been around in one form or another for generations.
www.snopes.com is your one-stop-shop for questions and answers about Urban Legends. They’re truly fighting the good fight over there. 
Snopes .
That’s what I get for stopping to check my link in preview.
:smack:
@&#^$ Simulpost.
Cumberland Memorial Hospital. The late 80s.
I was there because a pal of mine had a child in surgery and I was taking care of him. In the wee small hours we went down to the canteen to get some soda and snacks while he waited.
And there was a large jar there. A jar halfway filled with pull-tabs. Written on the jar was something akin to ‘For every pull tab placed in this jar CMH will donate 1 minute of dialysis time to our pediatric patients.’
So don’t say it never happened.
or © every time you wanted a can of soda, get a drink of water and put 50 cents into a box. Once you’ve saved up enough cash, contribute that.
Yeah, but from what I gather, some places have done this in response to the urban legend.
I have a hard time believing that this was really done. I can’t argue that you saw a jar placed there bysomeone, but I can’t believe that the hospital would withold dialysis time for a poor kid because they didn’t collect enough worthless pull tabs in their canteen.
Sorry, no. This is a frequent Urban Legend that many people have fallen victim to. They spend much time and great effort collecting ringpulls, and then discover that nobody wants them. It’s not just ringpulls, there’s all sorts of junk that gets collected for non-existent charity appreals: Walkers crisp packets, plastic milk bottles, and anything you can imagine.
After-the-legend, but KRTH radio in LA is doing such a drive as I type. I just heard the spot for it. Bring in tabs for Ronald McDonald House. So it does happen.
From Peter Morris’s link:
So if KRTH collects 10,000 pull tabs, they’ll net their charity almost $5.
As may be. Whichever came first (and note that I’m speaking of more than 15 years ago) it’s clear that it does happen.