Dave Harback of Sutton – Premier Real Estate in Edmonton says his annual Tabs for Wheelchairs campaign collected 2.5 times as many tabs as last year. Along with Mike Brennan of The Mortgage Group, Harback gathered 213,000 pop can tabs weighing 140.2 pounds. The tabs will be donated to the Holy Cross School in Winnipeg to fund specialized wheelchairs for children with disabilities.
“I had one person give me over 20 pounds of tabs that she had collected over the years,” says Harback, now in his fourth year of collecting. “Thanks to people like her, we more than doubled the 53.8 pounds we collected in 2016.”
Along with personally promoting the project, he uses Welcome Wagon to distribute collection jars containing details and contact information.
Since 2000, the Holy Cross School has purchased 17 specialized wheelchairs, which are not funded by the Manitoba government. The school collects tabs rather than the entire can to reduce storage space and because there are refund programs in place for the cans. Recycling aluminum pays close to 60 cents per pound.
According to school statistics, there are approximately 1,500 tabs in a pound. To purchase a $6,000 wheelchair, the school requires about 14 million tabs, which is nearly 9,500 pounds. To purchase a $10,000 wheelchair requires about 24 million tabs or 16,000 pounds.
