A little known fact: Roughly 2.6 million partially used bars of soap are thrown out at North American hotels each day and often end up in landfills.
An Atlanta nonprofit that has been trying to give used soap a second life got a big boost today through a new partnership with Hilton Worldwide. The hotel giant will collect and donate used soap bars to the Global Soap Project and invest $1.3 million to broaden the group's processing capabilities.
The fledgling Global Soap Project began two years ago in the basement of Derrek Kayongo, who founded the nonprofit with his wife Sarah. The pair reprocess the bars into new ones that are sent to refugee camps and other vulnerable communities to help stop the spread of disease. To date, the Global Soap Project has shipped more than 25 tons of soap to 20 countries, including Haiti, Sudan, Uganda, Afghanistan and Kenya.
Kayongo has earned some recognition for his efforts to date: He is one of 10 finalists for the 2011 CNN Hero of the Year, a recognition program that honors people taking extraordinary steps to help others or the planet. Kayongo said he first recognized the importance and demand for soap when he was a refugee in Kenya.
"Even when available, those living on less than a dollar a day had to choose between buying food or soap," he said. "People were suffering from illness simply because they couldn't wash their hands."
Hilton predicts its new partnership will produce more than a million new soap bars. The company will also take a seat on the nonprofit's board and help guide its growth. Together they hope to experiment with creating a social enterprise model and the infrastructure needed to process large-scale soap donations at no cost to the hotels. More than 300 hotels participate in the project.
The partnership also meshes with Hilton's LightStay measurement program. Just a few weeks ago, Hilton revealed that the program has helped save the company more than $74 million from reduced waste, energy and water use. We'll have a closer look at how Hilton made Lightstay work, but today's announcement shows how the company is using partnerships and engaging with customers to find surprising solutions to reduce a hotel's impacts.
Soap image via Shutterstock.
I agree that the overall goal
I agree that the overall goal to this is great, and I can see how this makes total sense. But as previously mentioned, converting to liquid soap would eliminate this extra waste, also eliminating the effort and time it would take to process the leftover soap into new bars.
I applaud the idea however, and definitely think its a worthy project for the time being.
Actually, it would have been
Actually, it would have been interesting to see Hilton do at least a screening-level LCA to determine whether the additional supply chain impacts associated with transporting (heavy) liquid soap were outweighed by the wasted bar soap going to landfill. Customers in the U.S. don't tend to respond favorably to the bulk dispensers (I just stayed at a hotel on Saturday night that used to use bulk dispensers and has switched back to individual plastic bottles) so switching to liquid would probably involve additional use of plastic, as well. Love the hotel key that operates the lights, though...
While I applaud this program,
While I applaud this program, it is a bandaid to the real problem. In European and Asian hotels soap is dispensed as a liquid. This results in just the right amount being used and no waste. Reprocessing the used soap first only captures a small percentage of the wasted soap and also requires additional resources. The real solution is to do away with bar soap and convert to liquid. Also convert to the European room electricity system that requires the room key to be inserted into a switch for any power to the room's lights and appliances.