Record haul of soft drink tabs trucked to Birmingham

By Staff
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
Charles Rhea's pickup truck was loaded down with 540 pounds of aluminum soft drink tabs when he left Hartselle for Birmingham Sept. 4.
The tabs were dropped off at the Ronald McDonald headquarters and the proceeds from their sale to a recycling dealer will help pay for the lodging of parents whose children are patients at Children's Hospital.
"This is the most we've ever collected in a six-month period," Rhea said. "The word that they can be used for something worthwhile is getting around. It just keeps building."
Rhea and his wife Ann began collecting aluminum tabs at home more than five years ago. Anytime they pulled a tab from a can they put it in a glass jar on the kitchen counter. It reminded them that each tab had a value and when collected in large quantities could go a long way towards helping others less fortunate.
Their habit soon caught on and they began encouraging their friends to join them as tab collectors. The Royal Ambassadors at East Highland Baptist Church took on the practice as a project, and tabs began flowing in from a number of different sources.
"We carried them to Ronald McDonald Charities in Birmingham in the trunk of our car at first," Rhea recalled, "but we soon ran out of space and had to start using the pickup. That was about two and a half years ago."
Rhea said Hartselle Junior High School was a major contributor to his latest collection.
"They must've had a contest to see which class could contribute the largest number of tabs," he said, "because when I got them they were counted and packaged in zip-lock plastic bags of the same size."
The Decatur Cancer Center is another large contributor.
The Rheas welcome the opportunity to collect the tabs others save and transport them to Ronald McDonald Charities.