On my list of things I could donate that I would consider life saving, I would put blood, organs, bone marrow, even clean water. Half used bars of hotel soap? That never crossed my mind. It did to Shawn Seipler, now the CEO of the nonprofit initiative called Clean the World. According to an article I read, Seipler found that millions of used bars of hotel soap are sent to landfills around the world every day. This is quite staggering when you think about it. All that soap gone to waste, while people in developing countries are dying from illnesses that could be avoided, simply by washing their hands. It is something we take for granted, but can make a big impact in other countries. After some processing to remove residual bacteria and reform the bars, the soap is ready to go. Clean the World has since teamed up with Global Soap and has delivered more than 25 million bars to 99 countries. This is a pretty amazing accomplishment and just goes to show you that the old saying, “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure”, really is true.
