PB woman’s selfless effort to collect discarded items meets with disappointment

Aluminum can pulltabs. They’re the stuff of urban legends. But, as with many myths, at least some of the information is true. And that makes Pacific Beach surfer Katie Rodrigues happy. She has been collecting pulltabs for almost three years. In that time, she’s collected thousands of them under the misconception that each pound buys a child with cancer an hour of chemotherapy. Rodrigues has ridden her bicycle all over the beach area, stopping to pick up the discarded tabs everywhere from alleys to friends’ barbecue parties. Often, when she returns home, she finds a baggie or two of tabs on her doorstep left by anonymous donors who have heard about her quest. When she amasses too many tabs for her tiny apartment, she turns them over to Ralph’s supermarket in Pacific Beach to be recycled. Only recently, however, she’s learned that recycled tabs do not — and never did — pay for chemotherapy or kidney treatment as legend has it. That’s simply a rumor that has circumnavigated the country for decades. Some good-intentioned, but entrepreneurial people are even selling the pulltabs on eBay. The only value of pulltabs is the value they bring from recycling or the value they have for crafts projects. But determined that do-gooders have not been collecting in vain, Ronald McDonald House Charities® of San Diego has been accepting pulltab donations. The center recycles the aluminum and uses its earnings toward operating expenses. “People, including the Boy and Girl Scouts and Kiwanis Club, bring the tabs to us by the bucketful,” said a Ronald McDonald House staff member. Organizations and businesses like Ralph’s, Al Bar Shriners and Rady Children’s Hospital also turn over their collections to Ronald McDonald House, located at 2929 Children’s Drive. The charity is a “home away from home” for families with seriously-ill children being treated at local hospitals. Not only does it offer 47 bedrooms for overnight stays, but it invites families to come by for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as to do laundry or take showers. Although the charity asks families who stay over for a $40 donation at check-in and a $10 donation per night, it does not turn away anyone who cannot afford to pay. But recycling tabs is a tough way to earn money. Ronald McDonald House doesn’t accept the full cans because of space and health concerns. It takes a whole van full of tabs to make just $50, according to one staff member. Old Town Recycling said one pound of aluminum is worth only about 30 cents, although amounts vary. And it takes about 1,500 tabs to make up a pound. Although they’re not raking in money on recycling, Ronald McDonald House does not have the heart to turn away well-meaning donors. Instead, it has launched a new program called Pennies with a Purpose. “With recent changes in the value of recycled metal, it takes a lot of time and effort to collect enough pulltabs to pay for a family’s lodging for one night,” according to the charity’s website. “Consider this: 1,500 pulltabs equal about 20 cents and 1,500 pennies equal $15.” There’s also the cost of collecting tabs and storing and transporting them. So the charity is encouraging donations of unwanted pennies and other change instead of tabs. Rodrigues, whose big heart extends to fostering rescue dogs, has already started saving her pennies. But she’s so used to collecting pulltabs that she’s not sure she can stop now. “It’s a fun thing to do,” Rodrigues said. “And it’s for a good cause anyway. At least they are going toward the parents who are helping their kids. They’re keeping their babies close.” There is, of course, the extra benefit of helping to clean up the beach area.