Will someone please explain to me, the deal about pulling the tabs off of aluminum cans to send to charity? I mean, I understand the point of donating to a worthy cause, but all the rigamarole with pop tabs seems to me like a massive waste of effort. Is it because this is the only easily detachable proof of purchase? And who’s doing the actual donating – the soda companies (or god forbid the beer companies)? I can’t believe this because I don’t think there’s an identifier on the actual aluminium tab, so how would the manufacturers know it was theirs – even so, imagine workers examining each little bit of metal to determine what must at most be a fractional penny donation? Then there’s the mailing – I guess the people in the office who ask us to collect these mail them somewhere? And sure, they’re recyclable, but the worth of that has got to be less than the mailing expenses alone. I just don’t get it.
(I know this goes against the strategy my company is taking of credit card affinity donations, but…) If you want to donate, just f’n donate. Dig into you wallet and pull out some of those cold green dead presidents. Write a check. Put it on your credit card and pay for it eventually. But peeling tabs off of cans and mailing them in? What’s up with that?
Update: a reader writes in to suggest that this may be what they’re used for.
Also found this on Snopes: Pull tabs from aluminum cans have special redemption value for time on dialysis machines: FALSE. Well, that warms my heart. Do I dare tell the guys in the next room, or do I just smile and nod at their folly? Or do I kidnap all their saved tabs and make myself some chainmail?
But then I read that the “Ronald McDonald House” actually collects them! Go figure. The site I looked at even repeated the claim that they’re made of higher grade aluminum, which they aren’t, and rationalized not collecting the whole can. Bah.