I collect old cans and i'm wondering what year did people stop using pull off tabs to open beverage cans?

-thanks  :)

I'm not precisely sure.  But I'll say it was around 75 or so.  Google mentioned the pop top was introduced sometime in 1974.  As I recall, the pull off tabs coexisted for a short while as different beverage packagers tried to get in step, but not terribly long.  People got used to the pop tops quickly, and liked reducing the garbage.

I recall as a Junior High kid taking the tabs from the old pull-off pop cans, bending the seal around and around, until it became a ring for my finger.  A real fashion statement, if you ask me!  ;D

(Of course, it was a bit large, but who cares, when you're in Junior High?)

I'm not precisely sure.  But I'll say it was around 75 or so.  Google mentioned the pop top was introduced sometime in 1974.  As I recall, the pull off tabs coexisted for a short while as different beverage packagers tried to get in step, but not terribly long.  People got used to the pop tops quickly, and liked reducing the garbage.

I recall as a Junior High kid taking the tabs from the old pull-off pop cans, bending the seal around and around, until it became a ring for my finger.  A real fashion statement, if you ask me!   ;D

(Of course, it was a bit large, but who cares, when you're in Junior High?)



  Good question.

  Around '75...was it really that early..?

  We used to hook them together like a long chain and use them as tinsel for the Christmas tree..!  Nah, not really... :P

 

 

Soda Cans still had pull tabs in the early 80s because I remember them :)

   Around '75...was it really that early..?


Could've been a little later too, I suppose...   :-[

It actually depends on the state.  There were some states that stopped the sale of "pull off tabs" as early as 1972.

In Oregon, they were made illegal around 1972-1973.  They were replaced with this horrible system that consisted of 2 circular push-in areas.  The smaller one was towards the center of the top, and was about the diameter of a pencil.  You pressed this one first in order to release the pressure in the can.  Once that was done, you then pressed in a larger circle that was against the rim of the can.

Think of it as the push-top cans we have today, but without the push top.  You simply used your finger to push the tab into the can.  And as you can imagine, this resulted in a lot of cut fingers from hitting the sharp inner edge.

A few other states in the NW USA also used this system.  In Idaho, they were an option.  And since all cans of Lucky Lager came from Oregon, every can shipped had that type of opening, no mwtter where it was sent to.  Coors and Oly also switched a lot of their production to this form as well.

By around 1975-76 the modern push top was invented, and you saw it increasingly used.  By around 1980, all of the beverage companies switched because of either customer pressure or state/regional laws.  The pull-top did last a while longer on other beverage cans.  I know that V-8 juice used the old pull top until the mid to late 1980's.  Since it was a juice and not a carbonated beverage, they often did not fall under the same laws.  Some of the "supplament drinks" have also used them until fairly recently.

One of the reasons why Oregon was a front runner in this was because of the fishing industry.  Any old-time fisherman can tell you that those pull off tabs made great fishing lures.  If you drop one in the water near fish, they will all rush towards it, and if they are large enough they will try and eat it.  There was some report that came out that claimed that part of the reason why the salmon were decreasing in numbers was because of this happening.  So in response, they banned them.

Of course, there were also the people who would drop them back into the cans, and accidentially swollow them.  I know a lot of people were seriously hurt and killed from that act of stupidity.