Recycling for the Hospitality Industry | Clean the World

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About Clean the World

is a global leader in environmental and social impact solutions, which aims to make the world a better place by diverting soap bars and plastic amenities that the hospitality industry would otherwise discard onto landfills and recycling the collected soap into new bars. By doing so, Clean the World helps reduce pollution, save water and decrease the carbon footprint of thousands of hotels globally, while helping improve the lives of women, children, and communities by donating the new soap bars to global NGOs, such as The WASH Foundation.

With over 8,300 participants in its Global Hospitality Recycling Program, and more than 1.4 million hotel rooms processed daily, Clean the World has already diverted over 28 million pounds of waste from landfills and donated over 87 million bars of recycled soap since its inception in 2009.

Our Sustainability Guide

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as Global Goals, are a set of 17 integrated and interrelated goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that humanity enjoys peace and prosperity by 2030.

Reporting on the SDGs is important in communicating their company’s commitment to contributing to the Global Goals to stakeholders; claiming accountability and responsibility to take the necessary actions; and measuring progress over time.

Meeting various SDGs within internal business operations provides hotels and organizations with a foundation to support sustainability. For more info visit – https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Our Global Impact

9.7 Million

lbs. of plastic collected

18.6 Million

lbs. of soap collected

28.4 Million

lbs. of waste diverted from landfills

11.1 Million

kgCO2e carbon footprint reduction

8 thousand

hospitality partners worldwide

1.4 Million

hotel rooms processed daily

Your Sustainability Goals In Mind

Clean the World’s Hospitality Recycling Program now reports your impact with the UN’s Sustainability Goals in mind. So what does this mean for you? Well, it means that when you recycle, we now track how your impact contributes to these goals and how it creates a more sustainable future – putting you in the driver’s seat of how you want to report your impact to key stakeholders and customers.

Our Global Partners

How the Recycling Program Works

Clean the World’s purpose to make the world a better place is brought to life in part via its Global Recycling Program, diverting soap bars and plastic amenities (which the hospitality industry would otherwise discard) from landfills and transforming the soap into lifesaving, essential supplies for communities in need across the globe.  Since it was established in 2009, Clean the World has distributed over 80 million bars of soap, which were exclusively donated to global NGOs, such as The WASH Foundation, an evolution of Clean the World Foundation, to support worldwide communities vulnerable to hygiene-related illnesses. The organization has also diverted 9 million lbs. of plastic amenity bottles and over 28 million lbs. of total waste from landfills and helped Clean the World Foundation provide an estimated 17 billion individual hand washes to those in need across the globe.

Soap Recycling Process

Clean the World’s soap recycling and manufacturing multi-step process includes rigorous testing by the Biological Consulting Services Laboratory, a fully accredited third-party laboratory, which tests the newly-made bars of soap for any and all contaminants. First, the used bars of soap are ground into pellets and finely refined to eliminate any foreign particles. Then, they are sterilized, refined again, and manufactured into brand-new bars of soap.

Soap bars are collected from our Global Hospitality Recycling partners’ locations.

The soap bars are meticulously refined into “noodles” to remove all impurities.

Using a proprietary process, Clean the World creates new & sanitized soap bars.

The new soap bars are tested by a third-party laboratory to ensure their cleanliness.

The new soap bars are  distributed through NGOS, such as The WASH Foundation.

Plastic Recycling Process

As for recycling the collected plastic amenity bottles, they are processed into flakes that can be used to manufacture new products, hence providing a sustainable circular solution to these single-use plastic products.

Plastic amenities are collected from our Global Hospitality Recycling partners’ locations.

The amenities are carefully sorted by type of plastic and remaining liquid.

The various bottles are then emptied and  shredded  into “flakes” .

The plastic flakes can be used to manufacture new items, such as buckets.

Our Hospitality Partners

We help our hospitality partners save lives while keeping our planet safe. By adopting our program, our partners enhance their brand and sustainability efforts by serving as the backbone of our mission to save lives around the world while reducing landfill waste.

Management Company Partners

Clean the World provides hospitality management companies with programs that weave corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and charitable giving practices into their company culture. We collaborate with these partners to help them share and showcase the story of how they enable Clean the World to save lives, reduce waste, and protect the planet.

Live ESG Impact Reporting

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Customer Portal

Clean the World’s Customer Portal offers a unique opportunity for you to engage in socially responsible programs that deliver direct impact, including soap distribution, hygiene education, emergency response, hygiene packaging events, and waste diversion.

The Customer Portal provides real-time updates on your Impact dashboard. As soon as Clean the World receives your full box, our team scans the box and uploads the impact totals to the portal.

Impact at Your Fingertips

Comprehensive Reporting for Hospitality Recycling Partners

As the hospitality industry shifts its focus to sustainable travel, it’s becoming more important for partners to track their individual impact and how they contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Clean the World’s impact reporting provides hospitality partners advanced insights on their sustainability contributions. At any given moment, a Clean the World partner can review, track, and observe the impact they’re contributing to the environment and the lives of people in need. Most importantly, they can share that information with key stakeholders. 

New Impact Dashboard within the Customer Portal

  • Measure how your Flag or Brand’s performance is impacting 9 of the 17 SDGs through 14 different impact/sustainability indicators
  • Easily add key SDG stats to Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) reports, customer-facing communication, and other marketing campaigns
  • Filter impact data based on Flag, Brand, individual hotel, or management company over a select period of time
  • Enhanced brand loyalty, customer retention, and more!

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Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome to the Clean the World family! You will soon receive a Welcome Kit containing helpful instructions and materials to train your team. We are here to answer any questions you have. Simply email partners@cleantheworld.org!  

No, participating hotels must request new or replacement boxes from Clean the World.  To request boxes, please log-in with your user name and password to the customer portal (portal.cleantheworld.org) and click or tap on the orange “Order Boxes” button through the Box Dashboard.  If you need log-in credentials, please request at: cleantheworld.org/portal

When the initial order is placed, the number of boxes that Clean the World will ship to the hotel property is based on room count and past participation history, not on the number of floors.  If you believe this total is incorrect, please email partners@cleantheworld.org to update your box allocation. 

Clean the World can accept any box or collection device containing soap and/or bottles. Simply contact partners@cleantheworld.org, and we will email you an extra shipping return label.  

To ensure Clean the World reports accurate impact totals, we ask that you keep your soap and bottles in separate containers.  To request collection boxes, please log-in to the customer portal (portal.cleantheworld.org), and click or tap on the orange “Order Boxes” button through the Box Dashboard. If you need log-in credentials, please request at: cleantheworld.org/portal 

Clean the World accepts all bathroom amenity bottles from hotel rooms including shampoo, lotion, conditioner, and body wash. 

When your boxes are 100% full, it’s time to ship.  To request a shipping return label, please access the customer portal (portal.cleantheworld.org), click or tap on the “Return Box” button and print your label through the Box Dashboard. 

Please note: Each box should have a different tracking number. UPS will not pickup boxes with the same tracking number. 

If you have a regularly scheduled UPS service, simply add the boxes to this pickup (make sure the boxes are labeled and ready for pick-up to avoid delays). If you need to schedule a UPS pickup, please schedule through the customer portal (portal.cleantheworld.org).  Click or tap on the orange “Schedule Pickup” button, confirm your address, and choose a pickup date from the calendar. 

Please note: pickups can only be scheduled for three business days or more in the future.  If you have any issues with your pickup, please email partners@cleantheworld.org.  Our team can work with UPS to ensure your pickup is successful. 

Now, you can receive impact totals right from your customer portal.  On the Impact Screen, you can get real-time feedback on how much soap you have collected, how many pounds of waste you’ve collected, how many bars of soap you have distributed, and historical totals.

First, please make sure your box is taped securely. We suggest you use two layers and tape all the way down the sides. Then, attach your shipping label on the top of the box with packing tape. You can also request clear shipping envelopes from UPS which protects your label.

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