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Pull Tabs
 pull tabs in canada




Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Pull tabs no longer urban legend
Date: 5 Aug 92 15:24:32 GMT

Here's some new information on the idea of saving aluminum pull tabs to provide wheelchairs for kids. As you'll note, it grew from the old urban legend, and a fellow named Ray Pearse in Elora, Ontario decided to make it come true.

The story is from my Ottawa Sun Page Six column:

MORE ON THE PULL TAB LEGEND

We're getting closer to the origin of saving pull tabs from aluminum cans to provide wheelchairs. This all started when Robert Marc Gagnon wrote and asked if someone was collecting aluminum drink can tabs to provide wheelchairs.

Then, on July 22, Page Sixer Judy Charbonneau called to tell us about a fellow named Ray Pearse who is collecting the tabs.

Now, Don Hebert was kind enough to send along an article from ``Legion'' magazine which details the story of Ray Pearse and Jack Baumber of the Elora branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.

In the Legion magazine article by Kevin Swayze, Ray tells how it got started when he was a bartender at the Elora branch. He heard a rumor that a ten thousand tabs would be enough to buy a wheelchair. That's the famous urban legend that no one could pin down, and after he collected them he realized the story was a hoax. Instead of throwing them out, he contacted a scrap metal dealer who would take them for between 20 and 35 cents a pound, depending on the going rate for scrap aluminum.

Reached at the Elora Legion, Ray updates us with the fact that he's now selling the tabs directly to Alcan.

``I called Alcan here in Guelph and asked if I could bring in some aluminum tabs. The fellow told me no, not unless I had over a hundred pounds. I told him, `I got about a ton.' So, he told me to come right down. We weighed it and it was 1930 pounds. I got about 47 cents a pound.''

Ray borrowed a baby scale and figured out it takes about a thousand tabs to make a pound.

Here's the most amazing fact. Ray has collected about 80 million tabs over the past three years, and it's getting bigger as more people find out about it. He tells us, ``What used to take a year to collect now takes a month.''

Here in Ottawa the Girl Guides are collecting the tabs. Ray says ``Don't mail them, it'll cost you over $3 to send me 45 cents worth of tabs.''

***

Attention Terrys: I trust this will earn me an honorable mention in the FAQ for a.f.u.

Fred Ennis
Ottawa Sun


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