One hundred twenty pop can tab collection tins are located at various locations in the Southeast, and a man from Steinbach is responsible for collecting them. 

Bob Barrow

Bob Barrow says he works together with Holy Cross School in Winnipeg, providing a wheelchair each year to someone who needs one. He says it's a province-wide project, and his job is to collect tabs from across the Southeast.

Barrow says the pop can tabs are melted down for their aluminum content, the cash from that is used to purchase a wheelchair every year in June. “Next year the recipient is Delayne Kolowca from Lorette. There are two types of chairs that get purchased, that gives the recipient more mobility and they are selected by the Rehab Centre for Children in Winnipeg.”

The cost of the two wheelchairs are $6,000 or $10,000 and Barrow says it takes a minimum of 14 million tabs weighing 9,500 lbs to cover the cost of the $6,000 chair. He says one pound of tabs are currently valued at sixty cents per pound.

He says he's already collected over one million tabs since December and notes every tab counts. “We collect more than just pop can tabs, there are bigger tabs on dog and cat food containers, and they can be any color.”

Barrow adds, any extra tabs go towards the next year, and for 2018, the twentieth anniversary of the wheelchair project, they hope to give away 2 wheelchairs.