Increasingly, those little bars of soap abandoned every day in guest rooms are finding a new home.
That's because a growing number of hotel chains are encouraging individual hotels to recycle toiletries through global non-profits that get soap, lotions and shampoos to people who need them. In many cases, the sterilized soaps and lotions go oversees to developing countries, where soap can help save lives.
This week, Hyatt Hotels Corp. became the latest hotel operator to officially encourage its 475 properties to recycle toiletries through Clean the World, the 4-year-old organization started by two road warriors who wondered what happened with all the soap they'd regularly leave behind in hotels.
Currently, just 25 Hyatt-brand hotels participate in the program. But Henning Nopper, Hyatt's top executive in charge of rooms, believes participation will expand since the agreement cuts red tape for hotels to launch the program and Clean the World is growing in locations where Hyatt is opening hotels.
The number of hotels participating in Clean the World's recycling program doubled in the last year, since Holiday Inn-parent IHG inked its agreement with Clean the World, says Maury Zimring, a corporate responsibility executive at IHG.
Today, there are 148 hotels across IHG's chains – Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and InterContinental – that participate, compared with 60 one year ago, she says. Since then, IHG's collected 99,000 pounds of soap for Clean the World, which has translated into 400,000 bars of soap delivered to developing countries, she says.
The recycling process initially relies on housekeepers, says Clean the World CEO Shawn Seipler.
It's up to them to locate the used soap bars and toiletry bottles in guest rooms and place them in special bins; how dedicated they are to this extra task can influence the success of the program.
At IHG, Zimring says the company tries to encourage housekeepers to make the effort by talking to them directly or holding webinars.
Do consumers care about toiletry recycling?
Whether a hotel recycles toiletries, and how it recycles them, probably won't influence the average consumer when they're picking a hotel, Jennifer Silberman, corporate responsibility chief at Hilton Worldwide.
"This is not part of the booking choice," she says. "This is one of those programs that when you tell consumers about it, it's an 'aha.'" It drives favorable reputation."
Bill Deforrest, CEO of hotel developer-manager Lane Hospitality, agrees that this is mostly a behind-the-scenes task. His company manages 15 hotels, including a Courtyard by Marriott in Gulfport, Miss., and a Doubletree by Hilton in Annapolis, Md.
"To me, it's absolutely the right thing to do," he says. "I don't think the customer's even aware."
Hyatt suspects that its efforts might make a difference to consumers, so it's in the early stages of figuring out how to convey the toiletry recycling program to guests, Nopper says.
Business reasons to recycle
There is one way toiletry recycling might help boost a hotel's business. It can make a hotel more attractive to meeting planners working for clients that favor green hotels and practices for event venues, Silberman says.
Recycling also can cut a hotel's garbage bills, Hyatt's Nopper says, although hotels must pay a fee to participate in the most popular programs.
At Wyndham, sustainability and innovation executive chief Faith Taylor views recycling of all materials as a serious employee morale booster.
"When a hotel starts to do one of these, their 'green teams' become excited and they do more, from newspaper recycling to helping Ronald McDonald house," Taylor says. "It's a platform for doing good business."
Not all hotels recycle the same way
In 2011, Hilton Worldwide inked an agreement with a different non-profit — the Global Soap Project — to recycle toiletries. Today, about 500 Hilton hotels out of 3,900 across the company's various chains recycle toiletries through this program. Participation partly hinges on a hotel's proximity to the non-profit's delivery and distribution venues, she says.
The most recent hotel to sign up: the iconic Waldorf Astoria in New York City
Hotels that belong to the boutique chain Kimpton and the Fairmont luxury chain, for instance, donate second-hand toiletries to local shelters or community support networks.
In Toronto, the Fairmont Royal York donates toiletries to a shelter for battered women, while the Fairmont San Francisco works with the local Salvation Army. The chain's hotels in Africa donate them to local clinics and orphanages, says Fairmont spokeswoman Lori Holland.
At Wyndham, which franchises about 7,000 hotels, about 3% of them participate in either Clean the World or the Global Soap Project, Taylor says. Still, some of the hotels not participating in those programs donate leftover soaps and toiletries to local charities. Taylor says this practice is more sustainable.
"When you ship soap around the world, you increase your carbon footprint," she says. "A big part of sustainability is local sourcing and participation."
Source: USA Today
