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joyfulguy

Stooping to pick up a pop can tab, of lower value than a penny

joyfulguy
20 years ago

Recently there was an extended discussion here about whether people would bother to stoop to pick up a penny.

Many of us allowed as how we would: I said that once when I stopped to pick one up at the entrance to the mall, I got a bonus: there were a couple more companions there, as well.

Quite a few said they wouldn't bother (some saying that it was too dirty - though when asked whether they'd stoop to pick up a $20.00 bill, with paper more liable to absorb nefarious substances than the metal of a penny, no answer was forthcoming, as I recall).

I realize that I often stoop to pick up pop can tabs, which are of much less value than a penny. Several years ago, three people that I knew saved them to turn in to a (I think veterans) group which recycled them as scrap aluminum, using the proceeds to buy wheelchairs for low-income people who needed them to be mobile.

I've collected scrap pop cans to recycle, removing the tabs for the one friend who still collects them. It's quite a nuisance removing the tabs from a couple of hundred pop cans. I've asked him to find out why they don't collect the whole can, as the Shriners do to support their free hospitals - no answer, yet.

I checked how many pop cans make a pound, but forget the number: it's about thirty, I think. That the scrap metal dealer (on the other end of town) pays 50 cents for. So you can understand my reason for combining a trip there with another (infrequent) errand in the vicinity.

The gas to travel there costs a substantial amount of the pop can money, in addition to contributing to the pollution that causes respiratory problems to many (my family has weak lungs) and I blame for sometimes making my eyes itch substantially for a number of weeks.

Beer cans (or bottles) are a bonanza - the beer store pays me 10 cents each for them (even with the tab removed)!

Good wishes for making some of your life's activities accomplish good things for others less fortunate - there are millions of refugees in the world who, along with having no home, don't know where their next meal may come from. How would you like to have nothing to feed your small kid? For days on end?

joyful Ed

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