The L.A. Times reported a new partnership with Clean the World, a Flordia-based non-profit organization, and the hotels of Laguna Beach. Clean the World is dedicated to redistributing recycled soap and shampoo products that are thrown away by hotels.
Anyone who has stayed a night in a hotel has been a culprit of contributing to this major source of waste. Those tiny little shampoo and conditioner bottles, as well as the miniature bars of soap, are often much more than we need for our one night’s stay in a hotel. While many people will keep
the bottles and unused soap bars for future travel purposes, a majority of those products are discarded by hotel guests and thrown into the trash.
In Laguna Beach alone, an estimated 336,000 bottles of hygiene products are thrown into landfills each year. Clean the World helps by sending all of the unused products to a treatment center where soap will be sterilized and recycled, bottles refilled, and then distributed to non-governmental
organizations in countries that need the products most. Clean the World charges hotels 65 cents per room per month for the service. Currently they are providing service for 1,200 hotels throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Shawn Siepler, co-founder of Clean the World, discovered that the recycled soap products could be used to help save lives in third-world countries. Pneumonia and diarrhea are two main killers of children in less developed nations worldwide, an estimated 60% of these illnesses could be reduced simply through effective hand-washing. Clean the World sends the sanitized soap products overseas where a lack of hygenic products is needed most.
Starting today, Laguna Beach will be the first city in the country to have all of its hotel properties with more than 20 rooms participate in the project with Clean the World. This sustainable collaboration between local government and non-profit organizations can set an example for other cities and hotels throughout the country.
Check out Clean the World’s Website for more information on how you can support this effort. What else can you do to help? Next time you stay in a hotel ask if they are participating in this program or one like it, and suggest that they start if they are not.
