Recycling Hotel Soap To Save Lives
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Perhaps he noticed because his father was a soapmaker in Uganda. When Derreck Kayongo learned how much soap was thrown away by hoteliers in the US, and that 2 million children die each year due to a lack of sanitation, he decided to do something about it.
He started Global Soap Project. Volunteers across the U.S. collect the hotel soaps and ship them to the group's warehouse in Atlanta. On Saturdays, Atlanta volunteers assemble there to clean, reprocess and package the bars. Then, they work with partner organizations to ship and distribute the soap directly to people who need it -- for free. To date, more than 100,000 bars have been gifted to communities in nine countries.
Headquartered in Atlanta and incorporated in Georgia, the Global Soap Project was founded by Derreck Kayongo, a humanitarian relief expert whose own family fled Uganda and the tyranny of Idi Amin in 1979. During this tragic and despotic era, close to one million people lost their lives. Many, like Derreck, were displaced in refugee camps. Today, millions of people around the world still live in compromised environments, with limited or no access to clean water and soap.
Recycling soap is a simple concept that provides enormous benefits. The Global Soap Project raises awareness about the lack of sanitation and its consequences in many parts of the world.
With 4.6-million hotel rooms in the United States, an estimated 2.6-million soap bars are discarded every day. By participating in our program, hoteliers are diverting tons of waste from the landfill and bolstering environmental sustainability programs. Hotel managers, housekeepers and guests become more environmentally conscious and more sensitive to the needs of vulnerable populations.
