Recycling and reusing is an important aspect for society and business. Soap is a material which traditionally has not been recycled. The hotel industry is one place that results in a large excess of partially used soap, resulting in waste and environmental issues.
The waste resulting from hotels is an issue to consumers and managers/owners alike. “Consumers are showing that environmental issues remain important to them, despite today's economic challenges. Thirty-two percent of those surveyed agreed that they expect the hotels they stay at to be environmentally friendly, and 29 percent said they would like to know more from hotels about their green efforts. Thirty-seven percent of consumers said they are more aware of the environment than they were a year ago.” (April 2009 Survey by Deloitte)
“. . . [A] recent study by the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University stated that the economy and environment are the second most important issues of concern to managers in the lodging industry. Sustainability is an issue that every hotel company must inevitably deal with. The sooner they address it, the better they will be equipped for the future.” (“Sustainability—Putting a Face to the Name” by Christian Anklin and Pierre Ricord)
The Sheraton Rittenhouse Square Hotel illustrates that customers do not have to sacrifice quality for sustainability. The extra costs involved in being environmentally responsible have been made up in increased occupancy rates. The Green Hotel Initiative may be well on its way to showing the hotel industry that there is room to be green.
Furthermore, there is a grave need in the world for usable soap. More than five million children die annually due to Acute Respiratory Illness and Diarrheal Illness. This is the leading cause of death among children worldwide. Eighty-five percent of diarrheal deaths occur during the first year of life, and approximately 4.6 million children under the age of five in developing countries die from diarrheal diseases each year. (IH 887, Baysac, Beilstein, 1999)
Studies on thousands of people show simple hand washing can reduce effects by 40%-65%. “Children younger than 15 years living in households that received handwashing promotion and plain soap had a 53% lower incidence of diarrhea compared with children living in control neighborhoods.” (JAMA, Luby, Agboatwalla, Painter, Altaf, Billhimer, Hoekstra, 2004)
“On current evidence, washing hands with soap can reduce the risk of diarrheal diseases by 42-47% and interventions to promote handwashing might save a million lives.” (The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Curtis, Cairncross, 2003)