ORLANDO, FLA.—Clean the World, the largest global recycler of hotel amenities, has expanded to Asia. The organization’s new soap recycling facility in Hong Kong provides an essential service to a region quickly running out of landfill space. It is projected to divert 110 tons of soap from landfills in the first year.
This is the first operations center outside North America for Clean the World, a social enterprise committed to saving lives around the world by collecting and recycling soap and shampoo products discarded by the hospitality industry. Nearly 2,000 hotels across North America currently participate in the program. Since 2009, Clean the World has distributed more than 13 million bars of soap in countries suffering from high death rates due to acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease, the top killers of children under the age of five.
“It is an exciting day for us because we understand the pressing need for innovative solid-waste solutions in Hong Kong and Macao,” said Clean the World founder and CEO Shawn Seipler. “Our North American team worked diligently to perfect the soap recycling methodology over the past four years. Now it’s time to replicate the model in other areas. A core tenet of our mission is to roll out our environmental solutions to the rest of the world and save lives in the process. We plan extensive expansion in the Asia-Pacific region over the next year.”
The Cotai Strip Resort and Sands Macao are key sponsors for Clean the World’s Asia initiative, participating with 10,000 guestrooms across the properties.
Part of ECO360° Green Initiative
“Sands China is proud to be the lead sponsor of Clean the World’s expansion into Asia, as their life-saving and sustainable environmental programs align with our ECO360° green initiative,” said Mark McWhinnie, senior vice president of operations of The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel and Sands Cotai Central. “With the vast number of hotel rooms in Macao and Hong Kong, there is an enormous opportunity for the hospitality industry to recycle soap that will help people in our region and around the world.”
Clean the World began working with Las Vegas Sands in 2011 and has collaborative relationships with some of the biggest names in the hospitality industry, including Caesars Entertainment, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, Hyatt Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Marriott International, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and Walt Disney World Resorts.
Shailesh Adhav is the managing director of Clean the World—Asia. He says operations in the region are already underway.
“We are picking up soap from our hotel partners and will begin fabrication of new bars by the third quarter of this year with our customized sanitization and cleansing process,” Adhav said. “Soap provides essential life-saving hygiene as well as basic human dignity, and it is important for raw soap to go through our sanitization process to create brand new bars. Clean the World has been doing this successfully for more than four years as the world’s largest soap recycler. Clean the World—Asia is proud to be part of expanding this valuable program into Asia.”
Go to Clean the World.
