What purpose could hundreds of tiny can tabs possibly serve once they've done their job and opened your soda or tin of tuna?

Well, Pinterest is rife with nifty craft projects that can be made with can tabs, from a necktie to a tiara.

Margaret Taylor and some of the pupils sorting the caps and tabs. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

Or you could put them to good use and donate them to Mount Maunganui Intermediate School.

The school is collecting the tabs, along with aluminium screw lids from wine bottles, as part of the ‘kan tabs for kidney kids' initiative – to take to the Mount Maunganui Lions club, which will in turn take the tabs to the local scrap metal yard for recycling.

Margaret Taylor, who has been organising the collecting at Mount Maunganui Intermediate, says it's an issue close to the school's heart.

'We've definitely had one, maybe a couple, but I definitely remember this one.

'I remember talking on stage and saying: ‘There's children amongst you that are suffering from kidney disease.”

And the school has done great. Mount Maunganui Lions member Hugh Hughes says they've been working with the school to collect tabs for seven or eight years.

'I get most of our can tabs from this school. The club is really grateful for the support from this intermediate.”

Three can tabs will earn one cent, and there are about 3330 tabs in a kilogram, so one kilogram of tabs– 3330 tabs – earns $11.10.

But since the project started in 1999, Lions clubs nationwide have earned more than $100,000 from recycling an excess of 45,000 kilograms of tabs.

Where does the money go?

The funds raised go to Kidney Kids of New Zealand, to help little Kiwis with kidney disease.

'It pays for the extra things, the accommodation, special treats and things like that.”