Shawn Seipler has seen the potentials of discarded soaps in saving lives. About seven years ago, Seipler, along with family and friends, started a small operation in a garage in Orlando, Florida recycling used soaps using potato peelers, cookers and meat grinders.
The nonprofit initiative has since then grown and is now called the Clean the World. It now has industrial recycling facilities in cities where there are plenty of hotels and thousands of used bars of soap can easily be collected. These facilities can be found in Orlando, Las Vegas and Hong Kong.
Seipler, who frequently travels because of his job at a tech company, related that he first thought of the idea at a Minneapolis hotel. He said that he called the front desk and asked what happens to the bar of soap once he is done with it. He was told that the soaps are just thrown away.
Now the CEO of Clean the World, Seipler said that millions of used soaps from hotels are thrown to landfills daily. Ironically, many people from developing nations die from illnesses that could have been prevented should they have access to hygiene products. Siepler is now on a mission to help save lives using recycled bars of soaps and half-used bottled amenities such as shampoos.
William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said that the most common illnesses in the world are those that spread from one person to another because of germs in the hands.
He pointed out that in developed nations such as in the United States, people tend to take hygiene products for granted since they can be seen everywhere. Soaps can be found in public restrooms and cleanser wipes for sanitizing the handles of shopping carts are available at the entrance of grocery stores.
The situation, however, is not the same in other countries. During a visit at a Middle East hospital, Schaffner found that there was a short supply of soaps. Patients need to provide their own soap or make do with none.
"It's such a fundamental part of the interruption of transmission of infectious agents that could save so many lives," Schaffner said. "It's not a magic wand, but it's a very important element."
Clean the World is partnering with Global Soap to boost production, education about hygiene and delivery. The combined efforts of these two groups now collect soaps from over 4,000 hotels and deliver some 25 million bars to 99 countries.
The process involves shredding the collected soap then running these through machines that eliminate residual bacteria before these are pressed as new bars of soap and packed for delivery.
Photo: Michael Coghlan | Flickr
