Bottle Cap Drive for Cancer a Hoax
Bottle Cap Drive for Cancer a Hoax Save Email Print
Posted: 9:45 AM Aug 18, 2008
 Last Updated: 9:45 AM Aug 18, 2008
 Reporter: Associated Press
Email Address: news@wsaz.com
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PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - A bizarre hoax has fooled residents across West Virginia who thought they were helping raise money for cancer patients.

Churches, restaurants and businesses from Wheeling to Bluefield have been collecting plastic bottle caps, fueled by flyers that claim the caps can be redeemed for money to pay for cancer treatment.

The caps, though, are worthless. Even recycling centers are rejecting them.

Aleta Brace of Parkersburg collected more than 20,000 bottle caps before learning about the hoax. She's upset, but said the response shows how West Virginians are eager to help people suffering from cancer.

Amy Berner of the West Virginia chapter of the American Cancer Society says the group is trying to discover how the hoax started.

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Posted by: amber on Oct 15, 2008 at 11:33 PM
it is so embarrasing to have to tell my friends and my community that this is all a hoax after spending so much time puting up boxes around the school and trying to get everyone involved. however this does show how everyone is willing to help someone in need.
Posted by: sarah on Oct 13, 2008 at 07:09 PM
my mom told me about the cap drive so i had been collecting through friends and where i work i was sadden to find out that it was a hoax but its good to see just how many people are willing to help if only there was something simple we could do that would REALLY HELP.
Posted by: Ali on Oct 8, 2008 at 09:34 PM
A few days ago my RA in my hall at college started up a bottle cap collection and all the girls in the hall are chipping. I was skeptical so I decided to look up information on it. I'm saddened to learn this is all just a hoax. I just lost my aunt to breast cancer a week ago and I thought this was a good sign for me to do something to make a difference. I know there's other things I can do. It's just...painful to know this is all just a joke to someone.
Posted by: A Mad MoM on Oct 6, 2008 at 07:48 AM
my daughter has been collecting bottle caps threw the summer... and we are in ky? this is a cruel joke.. my nephew died of cancer 10 years ago. and he was only 13years old... we know what cancer can do to a love one...
Posted by: Kristi Dunigan on Sep 30, 2008 at 11:26 AM
Here at Matinsville High School there are several clubs here that are collecting bottle caps. Who ever started this they are very crule. These clubs could be putting there efforts on something else. Our clubs here take this very seriuos, because all we want to do is help out the childern who are sick with cancer.
Posted by: Mariah on Sep 19, 2008 at 01:46 PM
Yes, this is a sad and hope depleting thing to do to people, but I would really like to know WHY DOES SOMEONE HAVE TO HAVE CANCER OR NEED DIALYSIS FOR US TO HELP? ISN'T EARTH'S CANCEROUS LEGIONS ENOUGH TO GET PEOPLE TO RECYCLE? IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE WELFARE OF PEOPLE AND YOUR CHILDREN, TRY SAVING THE LIFE OF OUR HOME SO THAT THEY MAY HAVE A HEALTHIER EARTH IN WHICH TO LIVE. Many states have recycling services in which people separate their recyclables from their trash in to different containers, these containers are put out each week right next to your trash cans and picked up just the same but by different trucks. This reduces the amount of landfill and recycles paper, aluminum, plastic, and glass which saves the earth and will help to purify the environment in which we live that is responsible for much of the cancer in the first place. It may be an expensive program to start but I should think that a portion of the recycled goods should be enough to maintain it afterwards.
Posted by: Darin on Sep 17, 2008 at 06:43 PM
From my research, the recycling centers reject the cap not because it's not the "right" kind of plastic (it's PET just like the bottles) but because of the liner (look for a translucent blue film inside the cap) most of them have. This liner is PVC, and apparently just a tiny bit of PVC will ruin an entire batch of the "soup" ("soup" is their term for the in-process batch of recycled PET plastic.) One source said that if a recycler receives a bottle with the cap on it they don't even waste time unscrewing the cap but have a process whereby the entire top of the bottle is sawed off, wasting even more plastic, so whatever you do separate the caps from the bottles if you're going to recycle!
Posted by: Crystal on Aug 28, 2008 at 10:32 AM
A guy in Northern KY says that a friend of his received free treatments as a result, but I don't know how they turned them in.
Posted by: Anonymous2 on Aug 24, 2008 at 05:32 PM
It's a shame that someone started this and it isn't true. We've been saving them for months and turned them in at an auction we go to (which is where we heard the idea) Like some of the other commenters on here, I think the recycling centers should go ahead and accept them for what we've been collecting them for...
Posted by: Donna on Aug 23, 2008 at 06:17 PM
I think it's a shame that people will lower themselves to this kind of scam. It is serious, and if they catch the person responsible, they should get jail time.
Posted by: CrackerJack on Aug 20, 2008 at 03:04 PM
That is one reason why me and my family only give donations to the Huntington City Mission.
Posted by: Tonya on Aug 19, 2008 at 10:01 PM
This is in response to Kayla your congergation at church will just be proud that you are willing to help people in need. It is not like you did this for your own selfish reasons. I think you should still be proud of your self and know that God sees your heart and if you were doing it for the right reason that is all that matters... Your reward will come in the end... Keep an open mind to be able to help people in need and you will go far in life.
Posted by: Dialysis - on Aug 19, 2008 at 09:02 PM
People, the dialysis story is just a hoax too. Google it and you'll see it's an e-mail forward that's been going around for years - there are no organizations that donate medical treatment in return for plastic bottle cap donations. The pop can tab thing WAS a popular hoax as well, until the Ronald McDonald house graciously stepped in and started accepting them.
Posted by: Kristin on Aug 19, 2008 at 08:39 PM
my grand parents used to save bottle caps and use them as checker board pieces. Lets everyone get together and play checkers!
Posted by: Kayla Suiter on Aug 19, 2008 at 08:13 PM
I am a junior from Chesapeake High School, and I have had my church, family, hotels, restaurants, the Veterans Memorial Field House, and even the PEPSI company involved! Do you know how embarassing it is to go to my church and tell the whole sanctuary that this whole thing, what we've been working, and praying for all summer long is a hoax?? This is ridiculous, and whoever started it, needs to be fined! They need to be punished in some form. Just today, I brought at least 8,000 bottle caps to school, not including the ones that I've been bringing the rest of the school year, and the ones that the PEPSI company is going to be bringing very soon to my friends Pizza Hut. This is ridiculous. I am glad to see the way people come together to help others, but this is plain out stupid. People need to get a life, and if their life is starting rumors, they need some serious help!Luckily, the caps aren't going to waste, our art class is going to paint them and make a mural in the art room
Posted by: Beth Ann on Aug 19, 2008 at 07:36 PM
Thank you Tony for the info.
Posted by: anon on Aug 19, 2008 at 10:40 AM
this is why i dont give money to anymore. unless i know it is going to the "cause" for sure i dont and wont give anything.how sad...
Posted by: Tony on Aug 18, 2008 at 11:56 PM
http://www.rmhc.org/giving/ways-to-help Many Ronald McDonald Houses work with local recycling centers to raise money by collecting tabs from aluminum cans. Ronald McDonald Houses collect pop tabs instead of entire aluminum cans because the tabs are pure high-quality aluminum, unlike cans, which consist of aluminum and other alloys. Tabs are also easier to store than whole cans. If your local Ronald McDonald House participates in the program, it’s likely cardboard collection containers in the shape of a house have been distributed to schools, community and civic groups and other organizations in your area, as well as at the Ronald McDonald House, local McDonald’s restaurants, local banks and grocery stores. You can collect pop tabs to donate to your House. After the tabs are collected, the local RMHC Chapter brings the collection to local recycling centers, where they are weighed to determine their value. One pound of tabs is worth 57 cents, and one gallon of pop tabs (4,175 tabs) is worth $1.49. The recycling center then sends the local RMHC Chapter or House a check for the total value. To date, more than 400 million pop tabs have been collected, generating more than $4 million.
Posted by: Candy on Aug 18, 2008 at 11:27 PM
Yeah I am like other people on here. How can the recycling company reject these lids? I mean they are plastic... or is this just a hoax so people will start throwing them away because they have collected so many and raised so much money for alot of people that they dont want to help anyone else. And then after people start throwing them away they start saying collect them once again. IDK but I am going to keep savin them I dont know about anyone else. I know I went out this morning to the doctor and you wouldnt beleive the bags people has throwed out of there vehicle and the plastic lids everywhere on the road. I mean people was gettin out and pickin up garbage just to get these lids to help cancer patients. Come on the recycling plant can not reject these lids there is no way!
Posted by: jaclyn chapman on Aug 18, 2008 at 11:07 PM
does anyone have any info about the girl in williamson collecting them for dialysis? My sister has A LOT of caps she can give to them. Please email me any info you can give. It would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by: trav on Aug 18, 2008 at 10:25 PM
Lets all go green and throw them away and bury them underneath the green grass and the green trees to make a big pile of junk and replant green grass and green trees and think it has all gone away. Out of sight out of mind!! The world is an enclosed environment and it is screwed!!
Posted by: Anonymous on Aug 18, 2008 at 10:20 PM
My neighbor was just telling me about saving the bottle caps for one of her co-workers. Somebody in her family had cancer and they were doing the same thing. This was in Charleston. Really sad. Somebody already sick and worrying about bills and they hear something like this and thinking it was going to help their family so everyone bands together to help somebody out only to find out their efforts were in vain. But you know what, they probably do it again if they thought it was going to help out somebody in need.
Posted by: just me on Aug 18, 2008 at 10:02 PM
I have a friend who collected these at work, tirelessly. She hauled bag after bag home each nite because she thought she was helping a child. Se has been collecting them for about six months. Now what will she do with them? Thousands and thousands of caps going into the landfill? Does anyone hae any idea where she can get them recycled? Such a waste. Not of her time or effort, I'm sure she would gladly do it again!! but a waste of hope for so many people who thought they were helping a child to heal.......
Posted by: mo joe on Aug 18, 2008 at 09:31 PM
a young girl in the Williamson area is collecting bottle caps to use for dialysis
Posted by: Rob on Aug 18, 2008 at 09:05 PM
I would still like to know why they can't be recycled.....are they just more fodder for the landfills? All these complaints about plastic bottles and such and the recycling centers won't accept these lids? We need to know why!
Posted by: Jane on Aug 18, 2008 at 05:49 PM
Why would people fall for an urban myth like this without further researching it? This has not only wasted people's time, but also done nothing to help cancer.
Posted by: Beth Ann on Aug 18, 2008 at 05:03 PM
What about pop can tabs? are they for real. I hate hearing how someone can be so cruel and lie about something like this.
Posted by: no name on Aug 18, 2008 at 04:39 PM
that a shame people will do things like that. make up stuff. and then people find out the hard way that they can't help. what is this world coming too??
Posted by: employees on Aug 18, 2008 at 04:26 PM
Our office has been saving these caps as well as having everyone that we know save them. We think it is a shame that someone would start a rumor like this. We were told that they were for a small child to receive free cancer treatments. We think whoever started this rumor should be very ashamed of themself.
Posted by: JC on Aug 18, 2008 at 04:19 PM
This is ridiculous. Since everyone did attempt to collect these caps, some nice company ought to go ahead and honor this. It would be a tax write-off and would be helping out.
Posted by: Anonymous on Aug 18, 2008 at 04:12 PM
Interesting. This is going around in Eastern Kentucky, but not for cancer. It's being told that a boy can receive a free minute of dialysis for each bottle cap he gets.
Posted by: cory on Aug 18, 2008 at 03:53 PM
we live in ohio and have been collecting bottle caps for the same thing how do we find out info
Posted by: Kathy S on Aug 18, 2008 at 03:26 PM
probably started on the internet in fact I think someone sent me one of those pass along thingies a few years ago about saving them only it was for some supposed child with cancer in another area I checked up on the web - there's several sites that will tell you whether these "requests" are valid or not so you need to check before you believe any of these so-called "pleas for help" that get sent along from one person to another via email Some people who start these things are capable of anything, even making us children with cancer or other disease to collect money etc Beware! Most of them ARE scams and then when VALID drives or collections for REAL people come along, people are wary of helping THEM. THAT is really sad
Posted by: donater on Aug 18, 2008 at 03:09 PM
Bottle caps don't work, but can tabs do.
Posted by: crystal on Aug 18, 2008 at 02:53 PM
Yup, it figures..... It was too nice to be true!!
Posted by: Eric on Aug 18, 2008 at 02:08 PM
I know how it got started...a greedy person saw an opportunity to collect on Coke Rewards points, Pepsi stuff and all the other promotions soft drink manufacturers do. This is as shameful as someone parking in a handicapped space and I hope karma pays them back in a big way!
Posted by: me on Aug 18, 2008 at 01:48 PM
i was on the putnam county fair this year. There was 3 or 4 kids were going around collecting the bottle caps and said that they were for a cancer patient. i wondered if it was really true or not.
Posted by: Christa on Aug 18, 2008 at 01:23 PM
At Putnam Co Fair this year they collected them for a boy that had cancer and for every 1000 collected the boy received a free treatment.
Posted by: concerned citizen on Aug 18, 2008 at 01:17 PM
I am very upset about this hoax. I have people helping to save these "so called" bottle caps. This a very sick hoax. Here we all think that we were helping and we are wasting our time.
Posted by: J on Aug 18, 2008 at 12:31 PM
My baby's daycare in Nitro has been saving bottle caps, so we have all our friends and family saving also because someone needed dialysis, so I guess this one is a hoax too.
Posted by: angie on Aug 18, 2008 at 12:29 PM
i think it take a low down dirty rat to do this to people, my husband has a rare cancer called Merkel Cell Carcinoma , its deadly. i myself have collected caps in ohio to help kids with treatment, i think whoever started this should be tghrowed in jail for years
Posted by: Anonymous on Aug 18, 2008 at 10:33 AM
OMG! We have a TON of those dumb things and its all a lie! Cute!
Posted by: Pablo on Aug 18, 2008 at 10:29 AM
You wouldn't believe how much "stuff" out there is a hoax or simply not true. Type in "Urban Legends" in a search engine on your computer and read about all the untrue things we've thought were true for years, i.e., alligators in the sewers of New York, Dept. of Natural Resources dropping rattlesnakes out of helicoptors (to eat turkey eggs) and even the old saying about cutting hair will make it come back in thicker. All untrue.
Posted by: Vicky on Aug 18, 2008 at 10:12 AM
Well I and my teenage Son have been saving these caps as well,, guess we will throw them away now that I know its all a lie. why would someone do such a thing?
Posted by: Rob on Aug 18, 2008 at 10:10 AM
Even recycling centers are rejecting them??? They stress on us to recycle to save the environment and the recycling centers are rejecting them??????????????????????????????
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