NGO SapoCycle Recycled Luxury Hotel Soap Is Saving Lives
A non-profit organisation in Switzerland, NGO SapoCycle, is collecting soap ‘waste’ from luxury hotels to recycle it and improve sanitary conditions for children and families in need. In 2014, Dorothée Schiesser and her husband founded NGO SapoCycle after seeing how much waste is produced by hotels discarding the complimentary sanitary products given to their guests. Around the world, millions of used hotel soaps are discarded daily and sent off to landfill sites, contributing to a growing environmental problem. Soaps can generate the same amount of CO2 emissions as gasoline when they’re burnt.
Contributions And Partners
The NGO has set up a network of hotels in France, Monaco, and Switzerland who contribute to the programme. Today (31/03/2021), they have partnered with 235 hotels who deliver used soaps to help the programme. The team then run workshops where they work with disabled people to teach them about soap recycling. They use specially designed machines made of second-hand kitchen equipment, such as cheese graters, to do so.
Benefits Of Recycling Soap
Over the last few years, with the help of many other NGOs, SapoCycle has delivered more than 150,000 soaps to tens of thousands of families in refugee camps and developing countries.
Since NGO was founded, SapoCycle has produced over 150,000 soaps to tens of thousands of families in developing countries and refugee camps. This is important as recycling the soap can help avoid the spread of diseases. In developing countries where access to health care is limited, washing your hands literally saves lives. According to UNICEF, more than 300,000 children under the age of five die due to diarrhoea infections caused by a lack of safe drinking water and sanitation.
