Pull Tab Redemption Myths and Aluminum Recycling Truths

Pulltabs have no special value that makes them redeemable for time on dialysis machines. The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) says this is an old rumor which 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.

No. Often local charities encourage communities to collect can tabs and donate them for various causes. This is a great way to engage a community, and the tabs are fun and easy to collect. But their value is no different to a recycler than the rest of the can. It's all the same aluminum. These tabs have no special value other than the fact that they are scrap aluminum. They take up less space than the cans, so are easier to collect and store.

For the sake of the environment, when you're collecting tabs, don't forget to recycle the rest of the can!

I have searched and searched and it looks like a huge rumour...

According to Coindude, the story of the special value of a gallon of tabs all started during a 1998 Tab Fest (a Wisconsin Concert for charity) collection, where one of the participants wanted to turn in the most tabs, and told all of his friends that he would buy a keg of beer for whoever brought him the most tabs (he has also heard that the prize was $75, a Guitar, etc, but it was in fact a keg of beer). In this fellows little contest, the winning contributor turned in a 1 gallon milk jug of tabs. It should be noted that in 1998, the dominant tab was the Type III silver, which we now find on 24 ounce beer cans, weighing in at 14.7 ounces per 1,000, though I would assume they still would weigh in at about 2.65 pounds per gallon

A gallon is about 3,450 tabs (weigh in at 2 pounds 3.88 ounces) to 4,720 tabs (weigh in at 3 pounds 1.88 ounces). Aluminum prices vary from location to location (as low as 55 cents a pound, to as high as $1.00 per pound), so your minimum would be $1.23, your maximum would be $4.72.

Definitely not enough for a keg! Six-pack, maybe?

That's as much information as is available, so, unless this was some isolated initiative that took a life of it's own...you be the judge...

Read on for more information on this.

Even though the tab is little "sturdier" than the can, once taken to a recycling facility they have the same worth (scrap aluminum). You can still recycle the can and, in states where you pay a deposit per can, you can still redeem them for the amount of your deposit with or without the pull tab!

The type I silver aluminum pull tab (the normal pop can tab which accounts for 96.21% of the U.S. market) weighs in at about 0.65 pounds per thousand (0.0104 ounces each).

These tabs have no special value other than the fact that they are scrap aluminum. They take up less space than the cans, so are easier to collect and store. They are made of the same aluminum as the can and are worth the same by weight.

A gallon of tabs is about 3,400-4,700 tabs (different-sized tabs, and the matter of the little curly thing which tangles all the tabs together and can affect volume by up to 36%), so a gallon should weigh in close to 2.65 pounds.

As scrap aluminum is going for 50 cents to a dollar, depending where you live, you would therefore have a value of $1.33 to $2.65 in metal.

$100 worth of tabs at the national average of 75 cents per pound, would take up the space of a picnic cooler, where as $100 in aluminum cans would fill a good sized van.

"Seeing as how folks were bound and determined to collect pull-tabs for charity, in 1987 McDonald's found it a good idea to get into the act.

Their Pop Tab Collection program is a response to pull tab-mania, and although its web presence perpetuates the myth that the tabs are made of a purer form of aluminum than the rest of the can, it at least provides folks with a place to dump the tabs they've been hoarding over the years in the
belief they could use them to purchase dialysis time for an ailing child.

Tabs dropped off at various McDonald's are taken to a local recycling company, and the money made from selling them for their scrap value is given to the local Ronald McDonald House to help defray operating costs." (from Snopes.com)

The Houston Ronald McDonald House has been involved in the program for 6 years and brings in an average of $8,000 per year.

Shriners Hospitals for Children in Springfield and Boston have been collecting pull-tabs or "pop-tops" from beverage cans since 1989, recycling them, and putting the money toward programs that directly benefit children.

Since its inception, about a half-million pounds of aluminum tabs have been collected and recycled.

Read more about it at thirsty lizard

Upcycling is a component of sustainability in which the use of waste materials to provide new products. It is generally a reinvestment in the environment. This process allows for the reduction of waste and use of virgin materials.

"Upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value." The term upcycling was coined by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, authors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

Check my Etsy Shop or my PullTab Crochet lens to see upcycling at its best...I forgot about modesty...

Next time you finish that can of suds, make sure it ends up in the recycling bin. It may be a cliché token act of environmental conscience for most people, but when it comes to aluminum, recycling makes a big difference. Your favorite brew or soda porter can be reincarnated in as little as 60 days, and it requires 95 percent less energy to recycle a can than it would to create a new one out of virgin ore. Recycling aluminum cans is a closed-loop process; cans can be recycled an infinite amount of times-unlike certain kinds of paper, which can lose quality after being washed and reprocessed. But aluminum just keeps going, and within two months of being recycled, it is crushed, shredded, melted, rolled into sheets, and reformed back into new cans that are ready for resale.

Because of the efficiency of recycling aluminum, it has amounted to big business. "The bulk of recycling is done for money," says a recycler, who ships out more than one million pounds of cans every year. In that time Anheuser-Busch buys 27 billion recycled cans.

1. Recycling aluminum cans saves 95 percent of the energy used to make aluminum cans from virgin ore.

2. In 1972, 53 million pounds of aluminum cans were recycled. Today, that amount is exceeded by 1,612 million pounds.

3. Aluminum cans distinguish themselves as the most recycled and most recyclable beverage container in the world. An awesome 105,784 cans are recycled every minute nationwide.

4. Used aluminum cans are recycled and returned to a store shelf as a new can in as few as 60 days. That means a consumer could purchase basically the same recycled aluminum can from a retailer's shelf nearly every 9 weeks or 6 times a year.

5. The weight of 1,665 million pounds of aluminum cans recycled in 2001 was equal to the weight of 14 aircraft carriers.

6. Americans earn about $1 billion a year recycling aluminum cans. A used aluminum can returned to a recycling center is worth about a penny to consumer recyclers.

7. For each pound of aluminum recovered, Americans save the energy resources needed to generate about 7.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That's enough energy saved each year by recycling aluminum to meet the lighting needs of a city the size of Pittsburgh, PA for six years.

8. Beverage containers represent less than 20 percent of the materials collected in curbside recycling programs and they generate up to 70 percent of total scrap value. Aluminum cans are the most valuable commodity to curbside programs helping to pay for the collection of other containers.

9. Aluminum can recycling rate is better than 1 out of 2 cans.

10. Recycling diverted 1.7 billion pounds from landfills.

11. Using recycled aluminum beverage cans to produce new cans allows the aluminum can industry to make up to 20 times more cans for the same amount of energy.

12. It's estimated that since 1972 some 18.7 million tons of aluminum have been recycled. These 1,099 billion aluminum cans placed end-to-end could stretch to the moon and back some 174 times.

13. Aluminum cans have amazing strength. Four six-packs (24 cans) can hold a 4,000-pound aluminum-bodied sedan.

14. In 2003, Americans recycled 62.6 billion aluminum cans. Those cans, placed end-to-end, could make 171 circles around the earth.

15. America recycled enough aluminum cans last year to stretch to the moon and back 8 times.

16. Since 1972 Americans have recycled 37 billion lbs. or 1,099 trillion aluminum cans and earned over $25 billion by recycling aluminum beverage cans.

17. Every minute of everyday, an average of 105,800 aluminum cans are recycled.

18. When you think it is hot, consider the following: Did you know that aluminum begins to melt at a whopping 1220 degrees Fahrenheit

19. Over the past 10 years, the number of aluminum cans recycled has doubled

20. The average employee consumes 2.5 cans of soda each day at work.

21. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours.

22. Enough aluminum cans were recycled in 2002 to fill a hollow Empire State Building 24 times.

23. Each year Americans receive enough money from recycling aluminum cans that every kid in the U.S. could buy two movie tickets.

24. The number of cans recycled every 30 seconds equals the number of people who could fill an entire pro football stadium.

25. Every 3 seconds a baby is born. In that time, 140 cans were born.

26. If the 2003 Corvette convertible was on a seesaw, it would take 107,214 used aluminum cans on the other side to balance the car.

27. In 2001, beverage cans delivered 9,409 billion gallons of pure refreshing beverage-enough to fill 37,634 Olympic pools.

28. 10,433 empty aluminum beverage cans weigh as much as Shaq O'Neal.

29. In 2001, Americans bought 351 aluminum beverage cans per person, twice as many as in 1980.

30. The average American family recycles 150 six packs of aluminum cans a year.

31. Used aluminum cans are melted down into ingots that can weigh as much as 30,000 tons. That's enough aluminum to make 1.6 million cans.

32. Aluminum never wears out, it can be recycled forever.

33. Americans drink an average of 380 beverages in aluminum cans each year.

34. Recycling 1 aluminum can saves enough electricity to run your TV for 6 Jimmy Neutron Episodes.

35. If Californians recycled all the aluminum cans they buy in one day, we would have enough aluminum to make 17 Boeing 727 jets.

36. Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves the equivalent in energy of 2,350 gallons of gasoline. This is equivalent to the amount of electricity used by the typical home over a period of 10 years.

37. The energy saved each year through recycled cans could light the city of Washington, DC for 3.7 years.

38. All aluminum cans recycled since 1972 would stretch from New York to Los Angeles and back 15,939 times.

39. Recycling aluminum creates 97% less water pollution than producing new metal from ore.

Visit the Can Manufacturer's Institute web portal for lots of information on cans, their manufacture, history and recycling programs as well as educational curricula.

Start a Great Aluminum Can Roundup in your community or school

Contact your local Ronald McDonald House to inquire about their Pull Tab Donation Program