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Community Corner

Local Students Collecting Pop-Tabs

The aluminum from the tabs on soda and beer cans are valuable for several national charities.

As you kick back and top off an iced cold beer – or soda – this summer, think twice before tossing the can in the recycling bin. Did you remember to pull the pop-tab off of the can?

Anju Bhargava, co-founder of The Indian School in Livingston, is encouraging all of her students – and the greater Livingston community - to collect the tabs this summer.

"These are valuable and are used by charities such as Shriners Hospitals and Ronald McDonald House to raise money for children," she explained.

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Collecting 1,267 tabs is equal to a pound of aluminum. Each pound is sold for about $1. Last year, Shriners temples nationwide collected $42,000 worth of tabs.

Only the tabs are collected because, according to the Shriners Hospitals program, the tabs are the only pure aluminum part of the can. It is important to sort the tabs from other materials because if left unsorted, the recyclable value drops by 75 percent.

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On the local level, the tabs are collected by Salaam Shrine in Livingston. Joseph Leal, an employee at Salaam Shrine, said the money earned is sent directly to the hospitals, where patients can use it to buy "whatever they want, whether it's computers, games, anything." All purchases are non-medical.

Shriners has been collecting the tabs since 1989. Over the past 20 years, more than half a million pounds of aluminum has been collected and recycled.

Bhargava is asking the students to put the tabs in a plastic Ziploc back and bring them to the school in the fall. There is a prize for the student who collects the most tabs. Once collected, the tabs will be donated to Salaam Shrine Center.

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