Clean the World recycles unused hotel soap and shampoo
Clean The World wants to make the world a little more sustainable and healthier using a circular approach. We ask what their plans for the future are.
After being for years a regular hotel guest, Shawn Saipler of Clean The World experienced his Eureka moment: soap and hotel amenities, the soap and shampoo found in hotel bathrooms, needed to be recycled. What guests didn’t use was being thrown out and incinerated, whereas many life-threatening diseases in developing countries can be combated by proper hygiene. Saipler’s next step was to launch Clean The World in Europe under the direction of former Hotelier Andres Fellenberg Van der Molen. From his base of operations in Prodock, Saipler wants to make the world a little more sustainable and healthier using his circular approach. We asked him how Clean The World can achieve this and what the plans for the future are.
200 pallets with unused soap in Prodock
‘Right now there are 200 pallets with unused soap in our warehouse in Prodock, which we received from hotel chains. While hotel bars banning plastic cocktail straws is also commendable, what we do saves lives. This is how we operate: we approach hotel chains with our story. Chains that are fired up to come on board and work with us pay us a fixed amount per hotel room, per month, for the logistics involved in processing the amenities. Now they know that the used toiletries will be re-used instead of being incinerated, and that the new product goes to people who are very much in need of it.’
Preventing diseases with recycled soap and hygiene kits
The plastic bottles are recycled at neighbouring company Plastics Recycling Amsterdam: ‘We then turn old plastic into new plastic, and the used bar of soap into new, 80-gram bars. These soaps go to people in need, all around the globe. Many diseases in developing countries can, after all, easily be prevented by washing hands'.
Next generations will see the results of what Clean The World is doing today
‘Our goal is to have all European hotel chains take part in this initiative.’ According to Fellenberg this is ‘an offer you can’t refuse. We need huge numbers of participants. Spread the word. My children and theirs will see the results of what we do today.’
The port of Amsterdam offers opportunities, flexibility and energy
Fellenberg: ‘We are very happy to be located in the port of Amsterdam. There are so many businesses here that are active in the circular economy. There are opportunities here, there is flexibility, energy and last but certainly not least, people who have the will to achieve change. Here you can see and feel and, in our case, smell the circular economy. The port of Amsterdam is a true European circular hotspot.’
For more information: https://cleantheworldfoundation.org/