Someone at Corporate messed this up

[bhskittykatt]

Okay, so way back in April, our company announced a competition. Our company was supposedly teaming up with [Charity]. Properties were to collect pop-tabs (those little tabs on your soda cans) for [Charity], and the property that collected the most would get money to spend on a staff party. We had until the first of the month to collect these.

Well, our little motel collected 30,312 pop tabs. That's a lot. Closest [Charity] location was in Seattle, almost two hours away. So I found a friend to drag along so I could use the HOV lane, and today we went down there to drop off these things. We found the charity, went inside, and...

Turns out they haven't accepted pop tabs in years. Apparently, we weren't the first from [my company] who tried to bring some in this month, as a few others had tried recently as well.

They referred us to a scrap metal place nearby. I sold 20 lbs of pop tabs for $10. We're just going to send [charity] a cheque for that amount.

I was pissed that I drove all that way, as instructed by my company, to find out [charity] didn't want them, and didn't even realize they had a "partnership" with [my company] (as [my company] called it). Someone at Corporate didn't do their homework! I'm thinking there's probably some branch of [charity] out there that does accept pop tabs, and whoever was in charge of setting this up just decided to run with that without actually going to [charity]'s HQ to make any sort of formal arrangement.

I'd better get reimbursed for that mileage, since it was still a work-related trip!

We'd better win that damn party, too.

I called CW and told her that Boss Man needed to talk to the powers that be and tell them off. Someone screwed up big time on this one! I will tell them off myself when I get back to work. (I'm actually on vacation this week...I blew a day of my vacation doing this!!! WTF?!?)

Fortunately, my friend showed me an art museum and a cathedral, and we also went for food, drinks, and shopping, so the trip wasn't a total waste. I got to see lots of parts of Seattle I'd never seen before, and it was a lot of fun. We made the best out of the situation, and I was able to use the HOV lanes, so it was all good. We laughed at how ridiculous Corporate was at organizing this collection!

Lesson learned. Next time, call ahead before driving two hours!

[judecat]

Unfortunately someone in your corporation fell for a truly ancient urban legend, from less than a year after soda cans started using pull rings instead of can openers -- and it was no more true then than it is now. No charity has ever collected pull rings, or pop tabs. I don't know for sure how the urban legend started, but I can imagine -- when they first came out the pull tabs came off the cans completely, instead of just popping a hole in the top. Now, you got the can of soda in one hand, and the tab in the other -- people would either just drop the tab on the ground. I can imagine some well meaning adult telling the kids to save the rings and turn them in -with the cans- as scrap metal, and from there it mutated.

[bhskittykatt]

Hmmm...actually, it looks like the charity in question did have a collection program at one point: http://www.snopes.com/business/redeem/pulltabs.asp (near end of article, RMHC is the charity). The article links to an archived page detailing the program, though it seems that page is currently no longer active (the archive is from 2004). So there ya go. Corporate needs to update their info, if 2004 is the most recent info that exists out there for a now-obsolete program.

[judecat]

But after careful reading of the snopes article it seems to me that RMHC jumped onto an existing legend 20 years after it started, (The rumor was going around my Jr high school in 1966) . I guess they figured that if people are are going to be saving the tabs, they may as well be the ones who collect the small amount of cash for selling them for scrap. And not all the Ronald McDonald houses participated in the program. As snopes quotes the Shriners (which also occasionally will collect tabs for scrap metal) as noting -- aluminum is only worth less than 70 cents per pound, (in 2007) it's gonna take a lot of tabs to make a difference. I think at least in case of the local Shriners it the attitude that people are going to collect the things, so we may as well take advantage -- but there's also the issue of storing the things until there is enough to make it worth while to transport them to the scrap dealer.

[dalesys]

The old pull rings were good for pranks too...

We were hanging out in a friends room. He got us cans of soda pop, and left for cookies. When he got back, we challenged him to open his can of Orange Crush like a hand grenade. (Rip ring off with your teeth)

...

Orange Crush makes a good hand grenade... when your best friends and buddies have been shaking the shit out of it.

[judecat]

The old pull rings were good for pranks too...

We were hanging out in a friends room. He got us cans of soda pop, and left for cookies. When he got back, we challenged him to open his can of Orange Crush like a hand grenade. (Rip ring off with your teeth)

...

Orange Crush makes a good hand grenade... when your best friends and buddies have been shaking the shit out of it.

coke works better -- it's much fizzier

[wolfie]

I don't know for sure how the urban legend started, but I can imagine -- when they first came out the pull tabs came off the cans completely, instead of just popping a hole in the top. Now, you got the can of soda in one hand, and the tab in the other -- people would either just drop the tab on the ground.

In a nutshell, that's why pull tabs now just pop a hole in the top, instead of coming off completely. I believe it was a legislated change, since the ones that came off completely (when I was in elementary school, we made Christmas garlands out of them - tab through loop, bend it over, repeat) merely created an extra piece of litter.

[Geek King]

coke works better -- it's much fizzier

Cherry Coke and Cherry Dr. Pepper are some of fizziest drinks on Earth. I have to watch when opening even an unshaken one of those. Tasty but dangerous.

[It's me]

In a nutshell, that's why pull tabs now just pop a hole in the top, instead of coming off completely. I believe it was a legislated change, since the ones that came off completely (when I was in elementary school, we made Christmas garlands out of them - tab through loop, bend it over, repeat) merely created an extra piece of litter.

The real issue wasn't so much people dropping the tabs on the ground, but instead, in order to be tidy, they dropped the tabs through the now-open hole into the can. And then proceeded to ingest/inhale the tab when they took a swig from the can.

[bhskittykatt]

Okay, so Boss Man made a couple calls and apparently, someone was supposed to get 1 cent per pop tab. That would have been $300 from us. Seattle was supposed to collect them ship them to whoever this organizer was, or we were, or I don't know. They told me to take them to the nearest RMHC. As of my attempt Friday, that was all the instruction we'd been given. I'm a little unclear on the details, since Boss Man called someone before he told it to CW who told it to me. But yeah...too late, sold them for $10.

[bhskittykatt]

Well, at least my efforts were recognized...I got a card from someone at Corporate thanking me for collecting the pop tabs. She apologized that the Seattle RMHC didn't accept them, and thanked me for still cashing them in at the recyclers and for driving two hours to do it. So I feel a little better now. Still need to write RMHC that cheque though. (I didn't feel like driving back across town to give them the cash, so I'm waiting until payday [tomorrow] to mail them the cheque.)