ORLANDO—Gaylord Hotels has deepened its commitment to sustainability by partnering with Clean the World to recycle soaps and bottled amenities at all four Gaylord properties in North America—Gaylord National (Washington, D.C.), Gaylord Opryland (Nashville), Gaylord Palms (Orlando), and Gaylord Texan (Dallas).
Clean the World projects that the entire Gaylord Hotels portfolio, representing 8,050 hotel rooms, will collect nearly 447,000 soap bars (more than 84,000 pounds of soap) and 62,500 pounds of bottled amenities (shampoos, conditioners, body washes, lotions and gels) annually for distribution to children and families in domestic homeless shelters, women’s shelters, and rescue missions. The sanitized and recycled amenities will also be included in sustainable hygiene kits for foreign distribution to orphanages, schools, medical clinics, and missions.
Gilchrist & Soames, a leading hospitality amenities provider, was instrumental in executing this partnership on behalf of Clean the World. All four Gaylord Hotels participating in this agreement feature Gilchrist & Soames amenities in their hotel rooms, which will be recycled after guest use as hygiene supplies for children and families in communities where soap and bottled amenities are in great demand, but short supply.
Shipping Costs Included in Program
Through this partnership, housekeeping staff at each Gaylord Hotel property will collect and ship hotel guestroom amenities to Clean the World for recycling and distribution to disadvantaged communities in the United States, Canada, and more than 45 countries. All shipping costs via Clean the World’s corporate partner UPS are included as part of the Clean the World program. Recent distributions of soaps and hygiene kits have been made to communities in Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Nicaragua and Sierra Leone.
Orlando-based Clean the World Foundation Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and the largest global recycler of hotel guestroom amenities. Through its sustainable and socially responsible efforts, including a patented method of sterilizing soaps during the recycling process to remove potential germs and pathogens, Clean the World has helped divert more than 1.4 million pounds of hotel waste from local landfills.
Clean the World recently achieved a major milestone with the global distribution of more than 10 million soap bars in just three years of operation. The soaps are often packaged as part of sustainable hygiene kits, which include recycled bottled amenities and other hygiene-related items collected from more than 1,400 hospitality partners throughout North America.
Participation in the Clean the World amenities recycling program complements the Gaylord Hotels GET Green program, which focuses on energy conservation and comprehensive sustainability initiatives at all Gaylord Hotels properties.
‘Sustainability at Its Very Best’
“We are excited about our partnership with Clean the World,” said Andy Mims, vice president of sustainability for Gaylord Entertainment Co. “The program is an example of sustainability at its very best—we are simultaneously reducing our environmental footprint by eliminating landfill waste, creating a positive social impact and reducing our waste spend. Further, the program brings attention to the real-world concerns for health and personal hygiene experienced by many people who will never visit our hotels, but will benefit from the generosity of those who have.”
Each day, 9,000 children around the world die from acute respiratory infection and diarrheal diseases that can be prevented by washing with bar soap. Clean the World has a mission to put soap in the hands of people who need it most to improve and promote hygiene and sanitary living conditions and to lessen the impact of disease.
“Gaylord Hotels is famous for gorgeous, innovative, and spectacular accommodations that respect and reinforce the value of our natural environment,” says Shawn Seipler, CEO and co-founder at Clean the World. “We welcome them to our global hygiene revolution and are confident that each property will exceed expectations as it collects much-needed hygiene products to help stop the spread of preventable diseases.”
Go to Clean the World and Gaylord Hotels.
