Medical Center collecting aluminium tabs from used cans to raise fund for dialysis patients

Aluminium can and tabs recycling is not only helping the environment but also serving a number of social causes. The Fairchild Medical Center Auxiliary is now collecting tabs from soda cans to help raise money for dialysis patient treatment. The collected tabs are taken to the Rogue Valley Dialysis Center in Medford, Oregon. The hospital sends them to be recycled and the money generated by the recycling goes into the Rogue Valley Dialysis Patient Trust Fund. The fund is used to provide emergency assistance to dialysis patients in southern Oregon in confidential manner.

The effort to collect the tabs stopped a few years ago because there wasn’t a volunteer available to take the tabs to Medford and recently, the drive has been restarted as said by FMC Auxiliary volunteer Robin Watson.

“We all want to help people,” Watson said, and collecting the aluminium tabs gives people an easy way to do that. She also added that since the tabs are made of pure aluminium, while the cans are not necessarily made of all aluminium, it becomes easier to recycle the tabs and get the benefit.

Ronald McDonald House, another charity that is into collecting funds through recycling can tabs, also notes that storing tabs is easier and more hygienic than collecting whole cans.

Watson shared that Jean Krueger, a “fairly new” member of the FMC Auxiliary, “stepped up and is spearheading” the project. Watson remarked that she is impressed with Krueger’s proactivity and is happy to see the tab collection get going again.

Collection of the aluminium tabs will be a continuous project and the team will be doing it till the time it creates interest among people.

She also added that anybody can take the tabs to the Rogue Valley Dialysis Center and not necessarily be an FMC Auxiliary volunteer. Watson requested people to bring the tabs in plastic baggies when bringing them into FMC, where they can be dropped off at the front desk.