Hilton launches soap recycling initiative across UK hotels

A new Clean the World facility opened in Amsterdam last year

Globally, up to five million partially used bars of soap are thrown away in hotels daily, and Hilton’s UK hotels will partner with toiletry recycling firm Clean The World to divert 64 tonnes of waste soap from landfill annually.

The partnership, which is pre-existing in other markets, will create more than 700,000 new bars to be distributed to communities that need them.

Hilton’s executive vice president and EMEA president, Simon Vincent, said: “It is our responsibility to protect our natural resources and ensure destinations across the world are preserved for generations to come.

“The expansion of our soap recycling programme not only helps us to reach our environmental goals, but also contributes towards tackling the significant hygiene epidemic which sees around 3,600 children under five die every day due to lack of access to clean soap and water.”

Clean the world

In an effort to also bring sanitation to those in need, Hilton teamed up with Clean The World in March 2019 for a project which will see it divert one million bars of soap from landfill.

The move builds on Hilton’s existing pledge to recycle 100% of waste soap from its Hampton by Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn locations, which has created 7.6 million second-life bars for redistribution to date.

The partnership forms part of Hilton’s 2030 sustainability goals have seen the firm commit to reducing its carbon intensity by 61% against a 2008 baseline, in line with the Paris Agreement’s pledge to keep global temperature increases below 2C. The target has been approved by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTI).

The strategy additionally sets out a commitment to double Hilton’s investment in social impact, with pledges to double funding for local and minority-owned suppliers, investment in programmes to help women and young people and money spent on natural disaster relief efforts by 2030.

A new Clean the World facility opened in Amsterdam last year. From 2020, the facility will recycle soap from 17 countries across Europe. To date, the company has helped create 11 million new bars – enough to wash two billion hands.

In 2015, London Heathrow Marriott Hotel partnered with Clean The World to recycle discarded soap.

Matt Mace

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