How about some hoax-busting on the stories about collecting a child's weight in empty Walkers Crisps Packets to fund an operation and the one that is currently going round Britain like wildfare - a hoax about collecting a wheelchair's weight in plastic milk bottle tops or other plastic bottle tops to get someone a wheelchair?
It sounds stupid, expensive and nonsensicle. Also, it sounds slightly glurgy. So it most likely is false.'
And I know I misspelled a word. It's 903 AM, so...
Greg
Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2004 | 03:30 AM
NOT A SCAM:
The plastic bottle top scam is NOT a scam! I have been collecting bottle tops for 3 months now, and even watched while the plastic was melted down at our local recycling centre, for the young boy who gets the wheelchair!!!
He has Cerebral Palsy, and he HAS now got a wheelchair after collectin his own body weight!!!
Brian
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 | 03:20 AM
I find it difficult to believe that it is not a scam. Wasteonline says "At present we are not aware of any group that will accept plastic bottle tops either for cash, or as a means of donating a wheelchair or any other piece of accessibility equipment" - http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Plastics.htm and the World Packaging Organisation says that "In France this summer, UK holidaymakers with an environmentally aware attitude will have noted that every type of container has its own disposal point at each Ôdecheterie'. Even plastic bottle tops are beginning to be recycled" Implying that they're NOT recycled in the UK - http://www.packaging-technology.com/informer/manage/manage10/ Perhaps Greg doesn't live in the UK? If he does, why didn't he say WHERE the 'local recycling centre' was?
It gives the price you'd expect get for scrap plastic at around £100 to £200 per tonne.
I weigh 76 kg so my weight of scrap plastic is worth about £15 (at best). How much of a wheelchair do you think you'd get for £15?
Sarah
Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 | 12:50 PM
This is not a scam....I am also collecting plastic bottle tops for my husbands work colleague to enable her son to get a wheel chair.
Brian
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 | 07:42 AM
OK. When he gets it, post the website of the local newspaper (surely they'll want to report it) so that we can see the article about it. Maybe, in the meantime, you'd like to say who's so generously providing the wheelchair?
Brian
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 | 08:45 AM
I only ask this because even a basic wheelchair costs about £200, and a powered wheelchair at least £1000. Some charitable person has to be putting up the difference between the value of the scrap plastic (£15) & the price of the wheelchair (but they're keeping very quiet about it, because no-one seems to know who it is).
Megan
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 | 05:54 AM
We are collecting milk bottle tops in North Devon and are extremely keen to find out whether it is a hoax. I think it is a boy in Launceston. This is driving me crazy 'cause I need to know whether to continue collecting - please help!
Who's going to pay you for collecting these bottle tops? Who's sponsoring it?
Megan
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 | 09:22 AM
No one is paying us to collect them, it is for charity. I'm not sure who is sponsoring it. I have very little information. As usual with these things it has been passed from one person to another to but I am keen to gather any facts anyone may have.
The only way to confirm if these things are for real is to know who's sponsoring the campaign, and then check with them that they REALLY ARE sponsoring it.
Brian
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 | 03:12 AM
Of course, this site http://www.shartwell.freeserve.co.uk/humor-site/walkers-hoax.htm is the one which pops up at the top of the list when you Google the subject.
Just scroll down to 'Bottle tops for wheelchairs' for loads of information on the subject. I've found nothing to contradict what it says.
Megan
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 | 04:03 AM
I have had a response from Dairy Crest, they say that it is nothing to do with them and most probably a hoax. I have come across nothing which says that it isn't a hoax. It is a shame that people have put time and effort to this scheme and to no avail. I'm hacked off, annoyed and cross that kind people will be disappointed, not to mention the waste that I thought was being recycled!
A spokeswoman for the British Plastics Federation also said that there were no schemes for recycling bottle tops for cash.
Steve Webb, from waste and recycling group Waste Watch, said: "We have had quite a lot of people that have collected them and tried to cash them in but didn't find anywhere to take them. The plastic involved is of low grade anyway and is more or less worthless compared with other plastics."
The group (Waste Watch) have also posted a warning on its website that there is nowhere in Britain that takes the bottle tops in exchange for cash or wheelchairs.
Babs
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 | 05:45 AM
Oh boy, have collected so many of these and now think that it MUST be a hoax. Why is Greg the only person who seems sure it's not. Greg, unless you too are a hoaxer can you please give details of the recycling company you claim will take these?
Ta
Megan
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 | 07:33 AM
Yes, come forward Greg whoever you are
Richard
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 | 10:57 AM
Boy am I glad to find this site. I can now safely get rid of the billions of plastic bottle tops I have managed to collect. I approached local schools and businesses to collect also. Each and every one of them only too delighted to help. However it is me with egg on my chin as I now need to shift the bloody things. If anyone wants them just let me know. I thought about approaching local art colleges to see if they wanted to make a huge plastic wheelchair so we can all remember the great hoax!! Quite frankly though I couldnt be bothered I have done enough arseing about already.
Richard
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 | 11:03 AM
Also I am now collecting ten pound notes. Any donations greatfully received. If I get enough I will buy some bloody wheelchairs myself.
Richard
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 | 10:49 AM
Sent a further e-mail to Kerry Pollard MP as I had seen on his site that a young man had alledgedly collected 90,000 tops and received three wheelchairs. I e-mailled his office to see if they could forward some details. This is the reply I received, 'UNFORTUNATELY EXTENSIVE ENQUIRIES BY CONSTITUENCY OFFICE STAFF HAVE RESULTED IN NO POSSIBLE OUTLET FOR PLASTIC BOTTLE TOPS' I think its safe to say we can all get rid of our tops cant we.
Sarah
Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 | 06:08 AM
After much searching online, the only UK collection I have found that accepts and recycles bottle tops (as scrap, not for wheelchairs) is detailed at
The minimum recyclable amount seems to be 1 tonne (approx 100,000 bottle tops, worht £50 - £60) as one recycler said they might try smaller amounts, but they wouldn't pay for it. The plastic isn't melted down, it is granulated for reuse (I've seen mousemats, drinks mats etc made from granulated waste plastic). Reuze has more info on products made from recycled plastics - wheelchairs don't seem to be on the list (some of the collections claim the plastic is used to make their wheels).
The hoaxes refer to collecting someone's unspecified weight in bottle tops or collecting 30,000 bottle tops for a wheelchair. A person's weight is likely to be around 70 kg. It takes 100,000 tops to make a tonne worth £60. At that rate of exchange I don't see 70 kg of tops or 30,000 tops paying for a wheelchair.
