What really happens to your half-used hotel toiletries
Plenty of us are guilty of pilfering complimentary hotel toiletries, or using them a few times and leaving the remains to the housekeeper. But you no longer need to feel guilty about taking them home.
Globally, it's estimated that hotels and travellers combined throw out about five million bars of used soap a day, according to charity Soap Aid. And that's not counting all those half-used bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash and toothpaste.
Soap Aid, which recycles soaps from hotels across New Zealand and Australia, has collected and recycled over 70,000kg of hotel soap since its founding in 2011.
"So far this year we have collected over 10,000kg of soap from hotels for recycling, all of which would have ended up in overflowing landfill," Diana Siniakov, a spokesperson for the Melbourne-based charity said.
A growing number of hotels globally are stocking eco-friendly toiletries in biodegradable packaging, but far fewer are choosing to recycle or repurpose them.
Some, however, have got on board with schemes which recycle used hotel soaps and distribute fresh bars to underprivileged communities, or turn them onto biofuel and industrial cleaners.
Lack of soap means illness and death for many around the world. About 2.4 billion people around the world lack access to proper sanitation, leading to the spread of infection and millions of deaths, according to the World Health Organisation.
This staggering gap between waste and need weighed heavily on hospitality worker, Australian Michael Matulik. The CEO of a supplier of hotel amenities, Matulick had seen the amount of toiletries wasted first hand. In 2011 he decided to do something about it and Soap Aid was born.
The charity collects waste soap from more than 300 hotel groups across Australasia, just 7 per cent of which are based in New Zealand.
The organisation works in partnership with Rotary International, which collects used soaps from hotels and takes them to a repurposing facility. There, the soaps are broken down, run through a series of filters to purify them and reshaped into fresh bars.
Soap Aid has sent more than 480,000 new bars of soap to communities in countries such as Fiji, Vanuatu, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Africa and Uganda.
In early 2016, the organisation sent 50,000 soaps to Fiji to support relief efforts after Tropical Cyclone Winston hit the Pacific Island nation.
A US-based charity which sends recycled hotel soaps to underprivileged communities also distributes bags of partly used toiletries, such as shampoos and conditioners, to homeless shelters.
What can you do?
Guests can make a difference themselves by taking leftover toiletries home and using them, gifting them or donating them to homeless shelters. They can also try persuading their favourite hotels to get on board with a recycling scheme or donating to the schemes.
Written by Lorna Thornber. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.
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