My mom is on a roll. She recently swiped the can I had just finished and pull off the ring tab on top. “Collect these and you can change it for a wheelchair!” I started to wonder whether this is an urban myth. After collecting these tabs, who to you contact and who do you deliver them to? Nobody seems to know. Delving deeper into the issue made me realized that the idea is not exactly as it seems.
Various countries have launched a “Save a 1000 ring tabs” type of programme including Singapore. Here we have something called Project E.A.R.T.H. with Rings for Life. Launched in 2012, it serves to encourage the public to recycle ring tabs from any standard aluminium drink cans for the making of artificial limbs. Volunteers from Rings for Life participate in community outreach events to spread the message and conduct drives to collect ring tabs. The collected ring tabs are weighed, cleaned/washed, dried and packed into boxes to be dispatched to manufacturers of artificial limbs. Beneficiaries of this programme include the physically challenged who reside locally or overseas.
The reason there is any question about pop tab projects, however, is that one of the oldest and most widely circulated urban legends involves the alleged collection of pop tabs to be donated to the National Kidney Foundation in Singapore for helping pay for dialysis treatments for kidney patients.
The National Kidney Foundation says it does not have, and has never had, a pop-tab collection project and that it isn’t really needed since, at the moment, Medicare typically pays for 80 percent of the cost of dialysis time, regardless of the age of the patient. Private insurance and state programs usually pay for the remaining 20 percent.
There are some pop tab projects, however, and some have done well.
Tabs for Wheelchairs, a successful effort in Canada, actually got started because of an urban legend. TruthOrFiction.com spoke with Jack Baumber of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 229 in Elora, Ontario, Canada. He has led a tab collection effort since 1989 that has donated more than 400 wheelchairs to people who need them. He says it all got started when he heard that tabs were being collected to provide a wheelchair for a 4-year-old girl. He and others accumulated some tabs, only to find out that the whole thing was a rumor and there was no such project. He decided to see how much the tabs they had collected were worth at a recycling plant and that inspired him to turn the rumor into reality. He says he gets tabs from all over the world.
Even the Thais are in on this with some 20kg of recycled ring tabs from aluminium cans have been collected to aid the Prostheses Foundation of HRH The Princess Mother of Thailand in Chiang Mai during a recent run a couple years ago.
So there you have it. The tabs don’t actually go towards wheelchairs per se. Collection efforts are more centralised around delivering of artificial limbs to countries upon receipt of those bags and bags of tabs. The question is why tabs and not the actual cans itself. Isn’t there more metal on them? The mystery continues. A good intent and effort kick is a good start but we have to find a way to make sure that the effort counts.
After note: My good mentor Mr O has provided another reason why only tabs are collected. Apparently the reasons for collecting only tabs include less storage space and no beverage residue mess to clean up. For many people, especially children, it’s fun to see the number of tabs piling up in the collection container like pennies in a piggy bank.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/157176-products-that-cannot-be-recycled/
Interesting reads:
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/community/2014/08/13/lions-collect-20kg-ring-tabs-for-new-limbs/
https://www.truthorfiction.com/poptabs/
http://youth.kmspks.org/files/2011/08/tab_np3.pdf
http://poptabsforwheelchairs.ca/
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081128192840AAm0stH
we have some ring pulls, can we send them to your mother, regards, alan.
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Hi Alan that would be kind of you. But save on the shipping and start the collection yourself. You might be also able to contribute to the charities highlighted.
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I have collect a lots of ring tab for my friend but now she ho home for goog it waste if i thtown away
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Try to have them donated if you can!
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[…] Do you collect ring tabs of cans for charity? […]
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Thanks for sharing this. I always wondered what happens to those tabs my friends collect.
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Me too! But at least we know. Still a good cause so encourage them to continue!
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I’ve been collecting them for a long time now. I send mine to the Ronald McDonald house. Here’s a link if anyone is interested.
http://www.rmhc.org/other-ways-to-help
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Great effort! It is for a good cause.
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fantastic action all the little things makes one big action
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Yes every little bit counts.
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I’ve always wondered what happened to the stamps I’ve collected on and off. I should really find out!
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Sounds like it. At least we know what happens to the ring tabs!
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I appreciate reading this. I had wondered myself about the tabs being collected and how they actually made a difference.
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Thanks! Yes it does make a difference!
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Thank you for liking my articles 🙂
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Yours posts are great! Keep it up!
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Thank you so much for the encouragement and appreciation. Grateful 🙂
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[…] via Do you collect ring tabs of cans for charity? […]
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Did you know those little tabs are purported to weigh more than the can itself?? No idea if this is true. Never weighed them. Thank you for visiting my blog!
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Ah never knew that. Thanks for sharing. Let the collecting continue!
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Interesting. Thanks for the follow. It is my old blog, however. My new one is linked in the last post on tropicalaffair if you want to check it out. Nice to meet you!
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Will do! Thanks
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Hi, I have quite a lot of ring tabs for cans, can I deliver to your center for needy people?
Lydia
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Hi Lydia, I don’t have a centre but the link has a couple that you could try!
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Hello, my child is currently collecting them here in Singapore. Any idea where I can donate them currently?
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The only one I know is that international website posted unfortunately.
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I’ve wondered about all this but never thought to trace it down.
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Thanks! Glad you like it!
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Reblogged this on Unsung Heroes: People Shining a Light in a Sometimes Dark World and commented:
Hi
Thanks for the follows *, as the reason I write is to share.
* (Though my family and close friends say it would be far more entertaining with a video-camera # in “real life”, rather than in cyberspace!)
# By the way, do they still make them in today’s ever-faster changing world..or is it all done with mobile phones?
(get with the times now,”luddite”* c – it should be a smart phone)
* or so I was often called by my “my techno-geek” friend, Bill (“the gonk”)
“total non-techno” c (who doesn’t possess a mobile phone, after a rather eventful’ experience some years back, whilst trying to walk, talk and chew gum at the same time)
Who says men can’t multi-task!
Kind regards
craig
“You will do foolish things…but do them with enthusiasm.”
– Colette
PPS
Best wishes from the First City to see the sun (in summer) …and we’re also the first to see the sunset and the stars (in winter-time)
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.”
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I stay in South Africa. I save bread tags for wheelchairs and plastic milk bottle tops for Operation Smile. And of course I recycle the plastic bottles!
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Wow! Keep it up. Definitely good to help the cause!
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Hi ! Do you know where do they collect them in Singapore And do you know if they make the wheelchairs in Singapore or do they ship overseas? Thank you!
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Yes. here you go!
http://projectark2013.blogspot.com/2014/07/donate-your-ring-tabs-for-good-cause.html
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Thank you so much ! May I know if they are still collecting it now?
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I believe so!
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Thanks for the kind words!
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I got quiet a lot of ring pulls here I would like to give them to charity but they need picking up from my house
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Keep it up and donate it!
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What a interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks! Hope you enjoyed it!
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Thank you for the like on Integrated School post today. 😀
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=)
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You know, I don’t and will not…we don’t drink that stuff. I admired your cover photograph of the rings.
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=)
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Hi my name is Tracey and the company I work 𝐅𝐨𝐫 has been saving ring pull but we don’t know what to do with them so this is why I have got in touch with you hoping you could help me Yours sincerely Tracey Davidson
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Hey Tracey, good to hear from you. There a couple of establishments in the links below the article. Check them out!
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Hi
Thanks for another follow and the likes.
“Always trying to be a better man (but not always succeeding) and early bird” c
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Keep up the great work for the blog!
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[…] Do you collect ring tabs of cans for charity? […]
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I wanna donate too 🙂
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Try the contacts out! It’s for a good cause.
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Hi Betterman, Im in Australia and I have saved the ringpulls for many years but the lady I used to give them to isnt sure herself where to send them now, Can you point us in the right direction? I have about 5 kgs which I could send. Thanks
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[…] Do you collect ring tabs of cans for charity? […]
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