Clean the World's Current Efforts to Curb Cholera in Haiti Supported by Walt Disney World Resorts
Ever wonder what happens to those toiletries you leave behind in your Walt Disney World hotel room?
Well, they could just be helping curtail the spread of cholera in Haiti.
Earlier this year as part of Disney's Give A Day, Get a Disney Day promotion LaughingPlace.com discovered Clean the World. The mission of this young organization (established 2009) is simple -- help reduce infant mortality while also reducing environmental waste through a program that safely recycles discarded soaps and shampoos from hotels for redistribution. At the time many Orlando hotels were part of the program including all the Walt Disney World resort hotels and now the program has spread to include hotels from many parts of the US and Canada. With the cooperation of the hospitality industry Clean the World has collected and distributed more than 6 million bars of soap in less than two years. According to their site, that’s 375 tons of soap, which would have otherwise been discarded as trash, that are now helping to reduce the spread of numerous diseases throughout the United States and more than 40 countries.
Image courtesy of Clean the World
As part of their efforts housekeeping staff collect the soap into bins which are picked up weekly by Clean the World. They are transported to the Soap Recycling plant where the slightly used bars are sanitized and repackaged using a proprietary and patent pending process while heavily used bars (only about 10% of those collected) are melted down and reformed into 2 oz bars.
Over the weekend Clean the World representatives were in Haiti on previously scheduled trip delivering nearly two tons of soaps as news of the nation's cholera outbreak became global news. Reports indicate that it has been over 50 years since the island nation had seen the disease. Cholera is an intestinal infection caused by bacteria transmitted through contaminated food or water. Hand washing and access to clean drinking are considered crucial to help stop the spread of the disease.
On Friday, October 22nd, Clean the World's William Lowry wrote, "We were able to provide 5,000 soap bars to the hospital in Saint Marc that was at the epicenter of the outbreak,” director of global distribution at Clean the World. And according to Clean the World executive director Shawn Siepler “More than 25,000 bars of soap -- some of them new, some of them recycled – were part of this targeted distribution to Haiti. They originated from our hotel partners throughout North America.”
According to the organization's blog, many of the soaps came from Las Vegas guest rooms through a partnership with Harrah's Resorts and there were also contributions of soaps and bottled amenities from Walt Disney World Resorts, Westgate Resorts and Mandarin Oriental.
Clean the World delivers soap in Haiti
Image Courtesy of Clean the World
If you would like to learn more about Clean the World, please visit their official site where you can find information on what hotels currently participate, how to organize a soap drive and more.
If you are coming to the Orlando area and can donate some time, they greatly appeciate your help, learn more about volunteering with Clean the World
Or you can donate to Clean the World's efforts.
•$25 will provide enough soap for 30 people for one month
•$50 will provide enough soap for 60 people for one month
•$100 will provide enough soap for 120 people for one month
*All donations are tax-deductible.
written by Rebekah Moseley