HERNDON, VA.—Staff members at the Washington Dulles Marriott Suites can’t help getting all bubbly when they talk about the Herndon hotel’s latest charitable effort. The hotel is one of just a few hotels near Dulles airport to team up with Clean the World, a nonprofit that collects soaps, shampoos, conditioners and lotions discarded by the hospitality industry every day. The organization, which operates in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and 10 Canadian provinces, then uses a patent-pending process to clean the products so volunteers can redistribute them for humanitarian purposes around the globe.
Hand washing with soap significantly reduces the impact of acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease in children under five years old and is recommended for all humans to stop the spread of many germs and diseases. Since its inception in 2009, Clean the World has eliminated more than 750 tons of hotel waste going to landfills across the country and distributed more than 11 million bars of soap and 325,000 pounds of shampoo and conditioner for human use.
“The Washington Dulles Marriott Suites is proud to participate in Clean the World’s hotel recycling program,” said Kristen Murphy, general manager of the all-suite hotel. “We provide our guests with only the finest Bath and Body Works products in every suite, so we are honored that the unused portions of those soaps, shampoos and lotions can be used to prevent hygiene-related illnesses across the country.”
In order to be a partner, the hotel’s staff underwent extensive training to learn about the environmentally and hygienically safe recycling process that Clean the World uses. Housekeeping staff then uses bins provided by the nonprofit to deposit all soap and shampoo bottles from the hotel’s 253 suites. Those bins are picked up weekly by Clean the World staff members or volunteers and taken to one of three recycling operation centers in Orlando, Las Vegas or Toronto, Canada. The products are sterilized and soap bars cooked to remove impurities before they are reformed into 2-ounce bars.
According to the Clean World Interactive Impact Calculator, the Washington Dulles Marriott Suites has the potential to collect 2,185 pounds of soap and 1,630 pounds of bottled amenities over the course of one year, yielding 11,654 recycled bars and 11,592 bottles to be distributed to children and families in need.
Go to the Washington Dulles Marriott Suites and Clean the World.
