Every year, billions of bars of partially used hotel soap are thrown away around
the world. Those bars of soap ultimately end up in landfills, when they could be
saving lives.
Worldwide, approximately 1.8 million
people in underserved communities — including 1 in 4 children — die annually
because of lack of access to soap and clean water. These heartbreaking
statistics are what drove Hilton to launch a first-of-its-kind
soap-recycling program nearly ten years ago. Working with partners around the
world, we set out to help solve this global hygiene challenge and reduce the
millions of pounds of waste created from discarded hotel toiletries. Today, we
are proud to have the largest soap-recycling program in the hospitality
industry.
The story of soap recycling
The soap-recycling process starts with discarded soap that is collected from
hotels and donated to a soap recycling center where it’s crushed, sanitized, cut
into new bars and then donated to communities around the world. Not only are
these new soap bars eco-friendly, but they also help prevent diseases and reduce
mortality rates. Just one bar of recycled soap provides an estimated 180
handwashes.
Today, to mark Global Handwashing Day (October 15), Hilton is further
expanding our life-saving program: Soap recycling will now be a brand standard
across our portfolio in selected regions, with the program extending to include
over 5,300 properties in more than 70 countries and territories. These new brand
standards aim to convert millions of pounds of waste into life-saving
handwashes
for people in need around the world. We will also continue transitioning from
single-use toiletries to full-size bath amenity dispensers across our global
portfolio in 2020. By the end of next year, we will have bulk amenities in the
vast majority of our hotel rooms.
Hilton’s role as a leader in soap recycling and as a trailblazer in the global
hygiene revolution started back in 2009. Hampton Inn by Hilton
Orlando-International Airport became the first hotel to donate discarded soap
to Clean the World, which has since become the
company’s largest soap-recycling partner. More of our hotels caught wind of the
program’s success and began to recycle soap themselves. In 2016, Hilton’s All
Suites brands (Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites by
Hilton) made soap recycling with Clean the World a brand standard; and in
January 2019, Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton by Hilton followed suit.
Recognizing the significant environmental and social impact of this program,
these five brands decided to take their soap-recycling efforts to the next
level. Earlier this year, in partnership with Clean the World, the five brands
joined forces to launch the Clean the World
Challenge,
setting the goal to recycle enough soap to create one million new bars by today,
Global Handwashing Day 2019. Hotel owners and Team Members took the Challenge
seriously and within only a few months, the properties had reached their goal.
Given that early success, they doubled down and increased their goal to two
million bars of soap.
The Clean the World Challenge not only spread awareness about the global hygiene
crisis but resulted in the creation of more than 2.3 million bars of new soap —
which will provide nearly 415 million life-saving handwashes. The Challenge’s
impact further inspired us to expand our soap-recycling efforts across more
properties around the world.
Effective January 2020, soap recycling will be standard across Hilton’s
portfolio of
brands. These
new brand standards are applicable across the United States and Puerto
Rico, Canada, the Dominican Republic, United Kingdom and
Continental Europe. Hilton will also continue its existing partnerships in
the Asia-Pacific region with soap-recycling
organizations
including Soap Cycling and Sundara
India.
Creating a cleaner future
To date, Hilton properties have collectively recycled four million pounds of
soap, resulting in 11 million soap bars being distributed to communities in need
in 127 countries. As a company, we have also converted one million pounds of
empty amenity bottles into energy and diverted more than four million pounds of
waste from landfills. Clean the World has reported a 60 percent reduction in
hygiene-related diseases in the regions in which it distributes recycled soap.
The expansion of our soap-recycling program, which includes the goal of sending
zero soap to landfill by 2030, is just one part of our larger commitment to
driving positive change in the global communities we serve. In fact, Hilton’s
larger Travel with Purpose initiative is redefining
and advancing sustainable travel globally. Last May, Hilton set the goal to
double our investment in social impact and cut our environmental footprint by
half, and we are the first major hospitality brand to set science-based
targets
to reduce our carbon emissions in alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement.
As the hospitality sector continues to grow, we have a responsibility to
preserve the communities in which we serve. As our founder, Conrad Hilton,
once said: “To achieve big things, you must first dream big.” At Hilton, we are
leading by example and making our dream of a cleaner world, a “greener” hotel
industry, and a more sustainable future a reality.
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Global Head of Corporate Affairs
Hilton
Katie Fallon is Global Head of Corporate Affairs at Hilton Worldwide. She previously served as Deputy Communications Director under the Obama administration.
Published Oct 15, 2019 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST