Legend of "pull tabs for dialysis" lives on

Img 0353

On a recent flight, I noticed this little pile of pull tabs from soda cans on a napkin in the galley. I asked what they were for and was told that one of the flight attendants was collecting them to help people get free kidney dialysis. A well-meaning act for sure, but also pretty much pointless. Those pull tabs aren't worth more than their weight for recycling. And according to Snopes, "a million pull tabs have a recycle value of about $366." That means the dozen or so in the photo have a value of less than 1/2 of one penny. These kinds of "redemption rumors" have been going around since the 1950s. Forwarding urban legend emails is one thing (and an annoying one, at that), but I was surprised to see someone physically acting on such an oldie. More info on the pull tab redemption rumor at The Straight Dope and Snopes.