When you save the pop tabs off aluminum cans for a charity, how does that help them raise money?

Question

I was asked to save these for a local children's hospital to help raise money to build Ronald McDonald's house. I can't belive that my source would not be legit.

I was asked to save these for a local children's hospital to help raise money to build Ronald McDonald house. I can't belive that my source would not be legit.

Answer 1

Generally this is only done when someone, such as the bottling company agrees to pay for them. for example the Pepsi company may pay 5 cents for each tab, they do this as a charitable donation not for recycling purposes.

Answer 2

They recycle them. Most places realize there's not as much metal in the tab as in the rest of the can. However, peope are more willing pop the tab off a can and save it versus having to wash and crush cans, which take up subatantially more space.

Yes, it takes a lot of tabs to make up the difference of one can, but every little bit helps.

Several non profits in my area accept them to recycle, including a Ronald McDonald House and a local hospice.

Check in your area to see who will accept them.

Answer 3

I've heard that this was a scam... Maybe now someone's doing it for real? Who would pay the $ for charity here? Not like the tabs say Pepsi or Budweiser...? And do you know how many tabs you'd need to collect significant $ based on the price of aluminum? _Quite_ a lot! Literally TONS.

I'd investigate a bit more before I started working for something which might be a scam!

Good luck!

Answer 4

Simply saving aluminum tabs doesn't help. You have to either sell them to the recyclers and give the charity the bucks or give up the aluminum and let the charity sell it. Unless, of course, it is a charitable trust with stock in aluminum then hoarding the tabs would bring the price up.

Answer 5

Yeah, my grandmother always made my family save those tabs, too. It's because they're pure aluminum I believe. There isn't any paint or other coatings on the tabs, so they're really simple to melt down and recycle/sell. That and you don't have to crush them down like full cans. They're compact and you can fit a ton of them in a collection jar without a lot of wasted empty space.

Answer 6

Simple--it doesn't. This is an old Internet legend thought up by bored Internet users in hopes of drawing attention to their scam. Every so often we are told of little Timmy O'Toole who has kidney failure and needs dialysis or some other medical procedure and that by saving pull-tabs and mailing them to some address it will help little Timmy. False. Here is a good site you can check to read more about this scam:

http://www.snopes.com/business/redeem/pulltabs.asp

Don't be fooled by scams that don't appear on the surface to be legitimate--generally they aren't.

Answer 7

oh, i know what you mean. you mean like when you see this on television and like the women are licking the lid and putting it in the envelope? or not i think that they sell the metal to the recycling companies and they do the recycling or some thing. but just give missives amount of money to these organizations for just doing simple things like that. i think that's awesome!!!!!!!

Answer 8

If you save something and make something creative out of it, you can make money with anything. My brother once used old puzzle pieces to make Christmas ornaments which he sold door to door.