NEW YORK, N.Y.—Desires Hotels announced that its collection of modern boutique hotels will be participating in the Global Soap Project. The project recovers and recycles soap from hotels and distributes it to refugee camps in Africa that are combating high mortality rates due to preventable diseases. The initiative, launched by Desires Hotels on Earth Day, collects soaps at all hotel locations and contributes them to the project—presenting a humanitarian and green solution to help reduce hotel waste.
Last year it was estimated that in Uganda 200,000 children died due to preventable afflictions like acute respiratory and diarrhea diseases, most notably in children under five years old. Scientific studies have indicated that soap and proper hand washing alone could reduce the risk of these diseases by up to 65 percent. Due to its simple solution, The Global Soap Project is uniquely positioned to make an enormous impact and raise awareness for refugees. “The fact that we could save lives by collecting something we were going to throw away in the first place is a no brainer,” says Raul Leal, president of Desires Hotels.
It is estimated that in the 4.6 million hotel rooms in the United States, an average of 2.6 million soap bars are discarded every day. So far, the Global Soap Project has accumulated more than 14,000 pounds of discarded soap. The soap is collected, sanitized, melted and remolded into new bars—greatly improving the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of refugees, one bar at a time.
Go to Desires Hotels and The Global Soap Project.
