pop tabs

So, I have been collecting pop tabs for awhile now. I am still not 100% sure what I am to do with all of them, but I do enjoy collecting them and hope to make some nice things with them sometime. Here is a log of some of my experiences while I have collected them.

jan 2010: For years, as I grew up I collected cans, for the extra money. I still do it, for a variety of reasons. I have a tendency to not take them to turn in for a long time in-between. When I really got into collecting the pop tabs, I decided to raid my basement collection. I had two big size bags full of them, and spent a good few days moving them from bag to bag taking the tabs off.

jan-april 2010: I am sometimes surprised at how many people just throw away cans. Granted, I have had to do it when there is not a recycle bin close by. But since I am only searching for the tops, which easily fit in a pocket, I find myself digging through garbage cans to get those tops. I find it is not always wise to do it to obviously when others are watching, I have got some pretty odd looks from people. So, I do it mostly as I am walking by and just stop, reach in, break it off, and leave.

jan-april 2010: At school there is this handy little bin to put your cans in so they can be recycled. I don’t want to look like an idiot, standing around a garbage can taking things from it, but I do notice every time a new can is placed in there and as I walk by I take it out and snag the pop tab. It is very fun; I get so excited every time I find one.

march 2010: I had recently got a new boss, and kept noticing empty cans in the garbage. I then found her with a drink on her desk; I asked her if she drank them a lot. She told me that unfortunately she did drink them a lot, and I got excited. Having grown up with recycling cans I couldn’t just watch her throw the cans away, so I got her another garbage can to use as a recycle bin in her office. Once a week I would then go through her bin and take all the tops off of the cans, it was like presents every week. Unfortunately for me I only worked there a couple of weeks longer. She however, still recycles.

march 2010: A friend of mine had a microwave sitting near his desk, with a growing amount of cans on it. Every time I would visit him I would be tempted to just take the tops. Finally after a couple of weeks of no new ones I asked him who they belonged to. He had no idea, so in a spree I took them all off and ran.

15 april 2010: A friend of mine was going to get some metal cut at the school metal shop and wondered if I wanted to come, so I could know where it was as well as to keep her company. Little did I know that when we arrived there I would find a scarp box, filled mostly with cans of sorts. After awhile of looking at it, and wanting all of those pop tabs I asked the guy in charge what it was. He informed me that he had a guy that came in once a week and took it to be recycled. I then asked if he thought the guy would mind if I took the pop tabs off of the cans. He said I could and while I picked over 30 tops off of the cans he sat and watched in amazement at how excited I was. It was a bit challenging to get them back since I had no pockets but I managed to stick them in the bag with the sharply cut pieces of metal. It was well worth the trip out there with her.

24 april 2010: For the graduating masters students the school threw a party showing off their final projects. It came complete with cans of soda. I was slightly excited upon seeing so many cans in one place. I took my pop tab, as well as my friends, however quit taking them out of the garbage after one had much to much unwanted food on it. My favorite experience was when I was took the empty can out of a friend of mines hand took the top off of it and handed it back to him, all while he was talking to us. He just looked at me like I was crazy, which he should have known by them that I was collecting the tops.

29 april 2010: A guy I know at school had been collecting, what I can only guess, is every empty container that he drank that semester on his desk. He actually had a pretty nice looking short wall of coke cans. I had been eyeing the collection for months, wanting the tops off of them, knowing it would add greatly to my collection. The end of school was coming soon, and I worked up enough nerve to ask him what he was going to do with his collection. I think he was confused about what I wanted, not allowing me to touch his wall of cans, but allowed me to take the ten or so tops of the other cans he had laying on his desk.