This is in response to the article about the poptabs. I live in Minnesota and at our local McDonalds we have a giant barrel labeled specifically for pop tabs. All proceeds help the Ronald McDonald house. I amd not sure exactly how it works, but there is a large replica of a pop can with the hole for drinking to be used to place the tabs into.
Wrong forum.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, Texas Tornado.
Since this is in response to a Straight Dope column (Will saving pull tabs earn free kidney dialysis for needy patients?), I’ll move this to our “Comments on Cecil’s Columns” forum. (The “About This Message Board” forum where you originally posted this is for technical questions about the boards, like “How do I post stuff in italics?”)
Have you asked at the local McDonald’s why they want only the pull tab, and not the whole can? Where are the pull tabs sent?
I’m not sure why they don’t ask for the entire can. I’ll check it out next time I’m in that particular McDonald’s. I believe they are sent to the Ronald McDonald House, but then as to where they go, I’m not sure.
I bet that at the Ronald McDonald house they use child labour to change those pulltabs, through some complicated process, into Chicken McNuggets.
There’s a pop-tab collection bucket at my workplace alongside a note saying that for each tab collected, some kid gets a second of dialysis. There’s no indication of what company is behind this, or how much a second of dialysis costs, or how much a pop can tab is worth (less than a penny, since the whole can is only worth about two cents), but just as it’s not worth the effort to pull the tabs off the cans, it’s not worth my effort to pound the sense into these peoples’ heads. Some day when I feel sufficiently enthused I may post a note asking what’s up, but until then, ehh.
How rude of you to say such a thing. I just looked at the Ronald McDonald house website and will call them to find out what they do with them. They say on their website that they do indeed collect the tabs for charity. I will clear this up once and for all, since I am heading for dialysis and kidney transplantation myself.
Sorry you feel that way. A second of dialysis is not very much considering each session can last up to 4 hours. Fortunately Medicare and most other insurances pay for the treatment. I have never heard of anyone dying from lack of dialysis unless they are not a good physical candidiate for the treatment.
I went to the address www.rmhmpls.com and found out the deal with the tabs. They have a specific section pertaining to the tabs. They recycle them. That particular part of the can is worth more and is easier to collect than the whole can. They explain that you can donate the cans towards another charity/fund. If you take the time to read the page, it makes sense. I will once again start saving them.
According to the website you linked above, 1 pound of tabs is about 1,300 tabs. Also on that website, they’ve raised $700,000 by recycling 400 tons of pop tabs. That comes out to about $1.14 per pound, at 1,300 tabs per pound… a little under a tenth of a cent per pop tab.
I can raise ten times as much money for RMH by just dumping my pennies into their pop tab recycling buckets. Or tossing a dollar bill in once a month.
It is flat-out not worth my time or energy to rip those pop tabs off and recycle them separately.
Oh, and this might be worth reading, too.
I read the information on the Urban legend link regarding the myth of pop tabs. While I do agree with you that it is better to just donate the cash, I, personally drink massive quantities of diet pop and find it no burden to snap off the tab to supplement the charity’s fund. I never insinuated that the pop tabs themselves could be redeemed for any medical treatment.
Wouldn’t it be even less of a burden, and even more of a profit, to leave the tab on the can and recycle the whole thing?
In my case, no. I drink an average of 12 cans of pop a day. I live in a one bedroom apartment where space is extremely limited. I couldn’t fathom having that many cans around the house. If our apartment participated in the local recycling availabilities, I would be obliged to set them out weekly.
Whoa! Set trash out weekly to recycle? How…Normal.
Ummm… OK, why don’t you recycle your cans? I just don’t get it.
I think what he/she is saying is that there is no apartment recycling collection program, so he/she has to take them somewhere him/herself. He/she does not know a place that accepts cans, but knows McDonalds collects the tabs. Thus it is relatively easier to collect the tabs, and turn them in. The tabs are free to accumulate, but don’t take up much room so they are easy to collect and then carry to McDonalds to drop off. Thus McDonalds gets a tiny (and I mean tiny) benefit from otherwise trash, based on the minimal effort of collecting tabs versus cans and then not having to hunt down a place to recycle them.
I understand the problem. I don’t have recycling at my apartment, either. I used to collect my paper, plastic, aluminum, and then periodically haul them off for recycling. But it was a major hassle. The plant isn’t very close to where I live, and it would clutter up the apartment, and in the end I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle.
Still, contributing the price of one soda a week directly to the Ronald McDonald Foundation would put more in their coffers than an entire month’s worth of pull tabs.
The Ronald McDonald web site sounds like someone read the e-mail about pull tabs for dialysis, and wanted to get in on the act, but didn’t check out the facts first. I guess they get people thinking about it, but really the value of the tabs is so low that it can’t be worth any effort. Texas Tornado (are you Doug Sahm, Freddy Fender, or Flaco Jimenez?), you’d be doing more for them by recycling a few cans a month for cash and donating that cash. As it is, you’re donating to them about $3 a year, by saving pull tabs from 12 cans a day (!). It just doesn’t add up. Wouldn’t you rather just hand them a five-spot once a year than spend all that time yanking the tabs off the cans?
If ya smash 'em, they don’t take up that much space. :rolleyes: