[Community-service] On Collecting Can Tops

Sun Jan 5 05:10:10 UTC 2014

Well, it proves we have to check and double check things before we jump into
a project. Something like "Due Diligence"? I watch a program on television
called "American Greed". It is amazing what crooks get away with and folk
believe them.

Michelle

-----Original Message-----
From: Community-service [mailto:community-service-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Steven Johnson
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2014 8:22 PM
To: 'Community Service Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [Community-service] On Collecting Can Tops

>From www.SNOPES.com

I also found that the aluminum in the tops is the same as in the can...and
from what we are reading, it is simply aluminum that is being collected.  I
fell for it as well.

Claim:   Pull tabs from aluminum cans have special redemption value for time
on dialysis machines. 

 FALSE 

Origins:   A legend this good-hearted should be true. But it's not. And a
lot of really nice people end up sadly disappointed when they eventually
discover all their hard work pretty much went for naught. 

 Pulltabs have no special value that makes them redeemable for time on
dialysis machines, or indeed which make them worth far in excess of their
ordinary scrap metal recycle value. While a handful of charitable concerns
(including McDonald's Ronald McDonald House and Shriners Hospitals for
Children) accept donations of can tabs, said tabs fetch such groups no more
than the items' ordinary recycle value (more on that later in this article).

 The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) says this of the dialysis rumor that
has been dogging them for quite a while: 
A false rumor that has plagued the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and the
aluminum industry for decades has recently resurfaced, perhaps fueled by the
Internet. Individuals and groups believe they can donate the pull tabs on
aluminum cans in exchange for time on a kidney dialysis machine. 

 Such a program has never existed through the NKF, nor have there ever been
programs through the foundation allowing people to exchange any type of item
(box tops, product points, etc.) for time on dialysis. 
 I don't think anyone is ever going to figure out where what have come to be
called "redemption rumors" first came from. The notion of something of
little value (pull-tabs, empty cigarette packs) being collected by
good-hearted people and then turned over to a public-spirited company who
would redeem them for an item that would help the less fortunate (time on a
dialysis machine, a wheelchair, a seeing eye dog) goes back a long way -
ours is far from the first generation to fall for this canard. 

 A 2002 article described a common experience with the rumor: 
Back when 15-year-old Elizabeth Bohli was in the third grade, she had a
friend who had a friend who had leukemia. Word was that the sick girl's
doctor told her about a program in which the Coca-Cola Co. would pay for one
chemotherapy session for every 1,000 aluminum pop-tops collected. 

 Elizabeth remembered that program when her 12-year-old sister, Jenny, was
diagnosed with melanoma in September, and a massive collection drive began
at Pelham High School. 

 For two months, students, teachers and parents brought in thousands of the
tiny aluminum objects. 

 Soon, other schools were calling, asking how they could donate their
pop-tops. Word spread to churches, which eagerly jumped in to help. And one
friend told another, and another and another. 

 Since then, the pop-tops campaign has gone, well, a little over the top. As
of this week, more than 276,000 had been collected. 

 And they're still pouring in. 

 But none of that metal will translate into free treatments for Jenny. "It
was just an old myth," she said this week. 

 Jenny's mother, Jo, called Coca-Cola recently, feeling as though she held a
winning lottery ticket in her hands. Then she asked how she could cash in
the pop-tops for money to pay for her daughter's immunotherapy treatments. 

 At first, there was laughter. Then the voice on the other end told her
there's no such program. 

 "She actually laughed because she couldn't believe that the kids had
collected so many," Bohli said. "To me, it was just so outstanding that
these kids made such a fantastic effort to help Jenny." 

 Walker Jones, community relations director for Coca-Cola in Birmingham,
said that while the company works with some cancer-related charities, it
does not redeem pop-tops for medical treatments. 

 Jones doesn't know who perpetuates the pop-tops rumor, but it has been
fizzing around for some time. "I think the myth has been going on for over
20 years," she said.1 
 There's nothing special about pull tabs which makes them exchangeable for
time on a dialysis machine. These bits of metal are worth nothing more than
the ordinary recycle value of the aluminum they contain. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Community-service [mailto:community-service-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Denyece Roberts, MSW, RCSW
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2014 6:48 PM
To: Community Service Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Community-service] On Collecting Can Tops

Hello everyone, with my busy schedule I'm just getting a chance to check my
emails.  The  soda tabs are used for dialysis, and heart patients.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brooke Evans" <brooke6358 at aol.com>
To: "Everett Gavel" <everett at everettgavel.com>; "Community Service
Discussion List" <community-service at nfbnet.org>
Cc: <community-service at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2014 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: [Community-service] On Collecting Can Tops

> Everett,
>
> Your info is correct!.......and thank you for the reminder, which I'd 
> totally forgotten about.....it's the aluminum that brings funds into 
> the coffers of the club piggy bank.  bre
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Jan 4, 2014, at 10:58 AM, "Everett Gavel" 
>> <everett at everettgavel.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Michelle, Chris, and all,
>>
>> What I heard, probably more than a decade ago now, is that the can 
>> tabs are aluminum, therefore can be turned in for a few cents a 
>> pound, and it can help to, say, defray the cost of dialysis for some. 
>> That's how it was 'splained to me.
>>
>> Strive On!
>> Everett
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> Did the question below ever get answered? I have not ran across it 
>>> and am interested in knowing myself.
>>> Michelle
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> Hi Denyece and all,
>>> I am unfamiliar with the activity of collecting bottle caps or soda 
>>> tabs for hospitals. Could someone explain this? How would the 
>>> caps/tabs be used by the hospital?
>>>
>>> Thanks so much.
>>> Chris
>>
>>
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