Thanks to an initiative by the Global Soap Project, hotel guests don’t have to feel bad about not using the entire bar of soap during their hotel stay. The organization receives partially-used soap from more than 1,100 hotels across North America, recycles them into new bars and then distributes them to disaster victims, refugees and those living in poverty.
Just a few interesting facts from their website:
- 1.4 million deaths can be prevented each year by handwashing with soap
- 7 million children have died due to disease that could have been prevented with proper hygiene since 2009
- Children under 5 who wash with soap can reduce their risk of pneumonia by 50%
- Handwashing with soap can reduce diarrhea morbidity by 44%
- Handwashing by birth attendants before delivery reduces mortality rates by 19%.
In order to expand outreach, they partner with respected NGOs and multilateral organizations to reach the populations who can benefit from the recycled soap the most. To date, the Global Soap Project has sent recycled soap to tens of thousands of people in 29 countries, producing up to 30,000 new bars each week.
To learn more about the initiative, visit the Global Soap Project website. Above soap photo via neil2580.
Jessica Festa is the editor of the travel sites Jessie on a Journey (http://jessieonajourney.com) and Epicure & Culture (http://epicureandculture.com). Along with blogging at We Blog The World, her byline has appeared in publications like Huffington Post, Gadling, Fodor’s, Travel + Escape, Matador, Viator, The Culture-Ist and many others. After getting her BA/MA in Communication from the State University of New York at Albany, she realized she wasn’t really to stop backpacking and made travel her full time job. Some of her most memorable experiences include studying abroad in Sydney, teaching English in Thailand, doing orphanage work in Ghana, hiking her way through South America and traveling solo through Europe. She has a passion for backpacking, adventure, hiking, wine and getting off the beaten path.
