Comments on: Pull-tabs

By: gayle

gayle — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:46:20 +0000

Al, I am still amazed at people in my circle of people who are convinced that the Kidney foundation benefits from this. Even when they learn about our history, they are so strong in their desire to “help the easy way” they refuse to believe they could be mistaken.
Treating people like morons is the American-corporate way is it not? (Wal-mart, Nike, McDonald’s)

By: Al Gritzmacher

Al Gritzmacher — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:27:16 +0000

Pulling tabs is not a charity at all, it is an activity. The question is, are the benefits it achieves worth anything to the charity they claim it serves? Or would your time be spent more wisely another way? Are your efforts really benefiting the charity, or being used as a publicity stunt for the corporate sponsor?

What is false is that the value of the material comes from the tabs. The money is coming from McDonalds and their advertising budget. The charity may be real, and if McDonalds, or anyone else, wants to contribute money to a charity, why not just do it?

I object to using people who want to contribute something to our society to do busy work. We might as well have them dig holes and fill them up again, like Army boot camp. Would that be okay, if it’s for charity? If some corporation pledges money for each hole?

If you want volunteers to raise money for a charity, give them a real and meaningful way to do it. Don’t turn it into an exercise in a meaningless gesture that only results in a publicity event for the company.

If you had read this blog at all, you’d know that I have had kids in the hospital. One of my sons underwent a lung transplant a year ago. A pile of pull tabs wouldn’t have paid for the first five minutes in the hospital. I’m all for supporting research and donating to charity, but I object to people being treated like morons and exploited by some corporate image-maker to enhance their brand in the name of a charity. That’s cold-hearted.

And people who just blindly follow along with these schemes without questioning their value and real purpose are just enabling the corporate hacks who use the charitable cause for their own ends.

By: Siena Malcolm

Siena Malcolm — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:37:26 +0000

This Whole Thing just makes me mad because i know that pulling tabs is a real charity and the fact that there is so many websites out there saying that it’s all false is stupid. The Ronald McDonald NC Donald Foundation accepts Tabs and in turn it goes towards family to allow them a place to stay while their child is in the hospital. People might say that it isn’t worth it, but think about your own child being in the hospital fighting for their lives the last thing you want to think about is not having the money to sit my their sides while they fight for their lives! If that isn’t a good enough reason then you are just cold hearted!

By: Al Gritzmacher

Al Gritzmacher — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:35:54 +0000

Vic – It’s called hyperbole, my math isn’t that bad.

cordwainer – The fact that something can be sold on eBay proves little about it’s real worth. A quick search on Google will turn up plenty of metal wholesalers who will sell you aluminum stock in bulk.

It’s still a stupid idea to waste people’s time when there are much better ways they could support a cause. The tabs are still essentially worthless, the peoples time is worth much more, if it were used effectively.

Oh, and almost every â€œaluminumâ€ is an alloy. Pure aluminum has almost no desirable properties as a metal until another metal is mixed with it.

By: Vic Hoffmann

Vic Hoffmann — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:18:31 +0000

I do not understand why 350 pounds of tabs was only worth $0.13? Even at only $0.50/pound that’s $175.