What Happens to Used Hotel Soaps

Have you ever wondered what happens to the used hotel guestroom soaps after you check out? Are these soaps recycled or are they thrown away? What are hotels doing to be sustainable and environmentally responsible? I used to bring ziplock bags to bring home these used soaps. I can continue to use them at home instead of wasting them by leaving them at the hotel thinking they get tossed into the bin by housekeeping. I recently learned that there is an organisation Skål International that works with Clean The World, a recycler of discarded hotel guestroom soaps.

Skål International is an organisation of professional travel and tourism leaders in the world and are encouraging around 5,300 of its hotel members to work alongside Clean The World in the collection and recycling of used soaps to fight the global spread of preventable diseases.

Clean the World has partnerships with big names in the hospitality industry such as Sands China Ltd, Mandarin Oriental, Hilton, Starwood, Marriott, Disney, Carlson and Intercontinental Hotel Group. Clean the World helps to protect the environment by diverting waste from incinerators and landfills by repurposing the millions of bars of guestroom soap discarded daily. Since 2009, it has created more than 14 million new sanitised soap bars that have been sent to underprivileged communities, families and children in 70 countries. Clean the World has operations in Hong Kong, Singapore and Macao.

Clean The World has supported the recent aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines by sending more than 10 tonnes of soap and many thousands of hand sanitiser packs which are essential for health and sanitation.

Also check out our reviews of airline amenity kits here and read about what you can take home from hotel rooms.