“What do you think happens to the soap and shampoo at a hotel after the guest uses it?” That’s the question frequent traveler Shawn Seipler posed to his good friend Paul Till one day after another business trip. They immediately conducted a 30-hotel survey asking this very question and discovered that all of the hotels surveyed throw it away – what a waste! Now Shawn and Paul were on a mission. During the weeks that followed, Paul researched and found countless studies showing how recycled soap could save lives. At the same time, Shawn discovered a recycling process that could be applied to soap. From there, Clean the World was born.

When we met with the co-founders of the Orlando-based charitable organization,  Shawn shared a staggering statistic: 3.5 million children under the age of 5 will die this year to two deadly diseases (acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease) – that’s the equivalent of 9,000 children every day! Even more tragic is that up to 65% of these deaths could be prevented through simple hand washing with bar soap. Now think about your last hotel stay – how many small bars of hotel soap did you “slightly” use and discard?

Since Clean the World was founded in February 2009, the accomplishments have been nothing short of stunning:

• Over 230 tons of soap, shampoo, and other amenities collected and distributed
• 100 hotels representing 22,000 hotel rooms in 12 states participating in Clean the World’s soap recycling program
• Over 230 tons of landfill waste eliminated
• Numerous trips to Haiti (both prior to and after last month’s devastating earthquake)
• Partnership with Royal Caribbean Cruises to move hygiene products and medical supplies into Haiti Relief Efforts

Have a Meeting, Save a Life – Clean the World knows that meeting planners and attendees are looking for more charitable activities to participate during their events, and have set up a meetings industry recycling program. By participating, your attendees will see first hand how this program impacts the environment and helps save lives. For more information, and to get a list of participating hotels go to www.cleantheworld.org.

Currently, Crystal Cruises is onboard with Clean the World, and we hope that other cruise lines will follow.

Clean the World is a step closer to reaching their goal of preventing the millions of lives lost each year – and they’re doing it one bar of soap at a time.

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