Staying at a hotel can make a traveler feel guilty. Not so much about the luxurious digs —most people enjoy getting top-quality for their dollar. What folks are worried about in these times of environmental anxiety and overflowing landfill sites is leaving behind all those half-used shampoos and soaps.
Enter Shawn Seipler and Paul Till, former e-commerce executives who formed the not-for-profit organization Clean the World last February. Seipler, who spent half the year traveling in his former job, would see those barely touched soapy amenities each morning in the shower and it got him thinking. “I decided to look at the green sector as an alternative career opportunity because I was tired of not seeing my wife and four kids. I thought soap recycling had business potential,” he explains over the phone from his office in Orlando.
Hygiene Stops Diarrhea, Saves Lives
The duo sent out a survey to 30 hotels asking what happened to used soap and found it was thrown away. After researching the connection between soap and disease a light bulb went off. “We didn’t start off with humanitarian intentions, but we discovered we could help the environment and plus have a life-saving impact. More than three million children die yearly from gastrointestinal disease. Our soap can help stop that,” says Seipler.
According to medical studies published in the Lancet, hands washed with soap reduce the spread of potentially deadly diseases such as diarrhea by more than 50%.
Clean the World Foundation collects, sterilizes and recycles barely used soap and shampoo products, then distributes them to people in need. So far the Florida-based charity has sent more than 230 tons of soap and shampoo to countries in Africa and Latin America. The organization’s Haiti earthquake relief effort has sent out more than 150 tons of provisions including hygiene products, food, water and medical supplies.
Even before the earthquake, Clean the World was working with Haiti residents. “We were visiting a school, where the kids were singing songs about how to wash their hands, but they didn’t have any soap. It was fantastic to be able to give them some,” notes Seipler.
Soap Recycling Process
How is the soap recycled? “We came up with a sterilization process with the Rosen Hospitality College in Orlando. We use the same steaming process that is used in hospitality kitchens. The soap is soaked in a sterilization solution and then treated with a steam/pressure process. The pH level is tested before it cools and is packaged,” explains Seipler. To find out how hygienic their products were, the organization infected soap with ecoli, salmonella and other bacteria and put it through the sterilization process. Tri-Tech Laboratories, a Florida state certified environmental facility, then tested the samples. “It came back with a 100 percent clean bill of health,” says Seipler, who adds, “I personally use our soaps.”
Clean the World has a staff of 12 employees plus an army of volunteers to help with the recycling. Local residents of the Central Care Mission are involved with the sterilizing and repackaging operations. Recipients of the products include the Community Rehabilitation Center in Jacksonville, Florida.
“We were spending $20,000 a year on toiletry items that we give to our customers. Now Clean the World provides us with their soaps at no charge. We will use the money saved on our vocational programs that help get people working,” explains Joshua Cockrell, the center’s director of marketing and community relations.
Mission in Canada and Abroad
In Canada, Clean the World is working with Vancouver’s Mission Possible, which helps the residents of the impoverished downtown east side. “We’re in the planning stages of becoming the organization’s Canadian outlet. We want to set up a hotel collection system, soap processing operation and market for local buyers. Eventually, we hope to operate nationally,” says Brian Postlewait, Mission Possible’s executive director.
Organizations that have distributed Clean the World soaps internationally include World Vision, Floating Doctors, and Harvest Time International.
So far, there are around 150 participating donor hotels, the majority in Central Florida, including Walt Disney World Resort properties. “Our goal is to create an international program that will involve hotels globally,” says Seipler, adding “We can do something monumental, to protect the environment and stop children from dying. Paul and I might have started out looking for an alternative career, but what we’ve discovered is far bigger.”
Maureen Littlejohn - Maureen Littlejohn is an award-winning journalist who has been practicing her craft since the 1980s. Her career includes stints as a daily ...
