Conrad recycles used soap to help people in Asia

Filipino kids in the region struck by the typhoon Haiyan last November play with soap they received from Soap Cycling. / Courtesy of Soap Cycling

By Kim Se-jeong

Used soap bars from hotels often end up in garbage cans.

At the Conrad Seoul, they are an important item to fulfill its corporate social responsibility.

On the first Tuesday of every month, a DHL man picks up boxes of used soap collected from 434 guest rooms and ships them to Soap Cycling Center, an NGO based in Hong Kong.

Machines at the center grind them up, mix them up with water and hygienically recycle them for distribution to underprivileged communities and disaster areas.

"Our partnership with DHL Korea and Soap Cycling has enabled us to put our ideas for protecting the global environment into action, which is a responsibility we mutually share," Nils-Arne Schroeder, general manger of Conrad Seoul, said. "By continuing our small contributions to bring about big changes, we are taking the lead in achieving a sustainable tomorrow together."

Reborn bars of soap are sent to children in the Asia Pacific region, who are living in unprivileged or disaster-hit regions.

"If we can give all of the children in the world soap and teach them how to use it, you save about one million children every single year, just from the soap." David Bishop, the founder of Soap Cycling, said as to what he wants to achieve through the project.

New soap is delivered to children via its partner NGOs.

Conrad Seoul's donation is part of a Hilton Worldwide initiative.

More than 700 Hilton properties around the world donate used bars of soap. Soap Cycling receives it from 15 properties in the Asia Pacific region. Hilton properties outside Asia Pacific have different partners.

Since 2011, Hilton Worldwide donated 120 tons. Conrad Seoul has donated 411,5 kilograms since January this year.

"Through this partnership with Soap Cycling, our hotels take a small but important step in improving hygiene-related support to underprivileged communities in Asia, while diverting waste from landfills," Sylvia Low, corporate responsibility manager of Hilton Worldwide Asia Pacific, wrote in an email."We are pleased to be Soap Cycling's very first hospitality partner outside Hong Kong."

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