The Hilton hotel chain has launched the Clean the World Challenge to recycle a million bars of soap by Global Handwashing Day on 15 October 2019.
As the challenge’s name suggests, Hilton has joined forces with Clean the World to recycle soap bars left behind in hotel guest rooms across the Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton and All Suites brands.
Hilton say Clean the World’s mission aligns with their own Travel with Purpose initiative, the company’s corporate responsibility strategy. By 2030, Hilton aims to cut its environmental footprint in half and send zero soap to landfill.
Shawn Seipler, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Clean the World, said: “Hilton understands the urgent need for recycled soap donation and hygiene education in communities all over the world, and they have been a great partner of ours for many years. As many as 2.3 billion people around the world lack basic sanitation and over 3,500 children die from preventable hygiene-related illnesses every day. This challenge will make a meaningful difference for countless people in need.”
Through its soap recycling partnership with Clean the World, Hilton has contributed to the distribution of more than 7.6m bars of recycled soap, resulting in more than 2m pounds of soap and amenity bottles being diverted from landfills. Discarded soap is crushed, sanitised and cut into new soap bars. Amenity bottles are repurposed for hygiene kits or recycled.
Since its founding in 2009, Clean the World has distributed more than 48m soap bars across more than 127 countries.
