Who Knew You Could Recycle Soap? - RYTHM Foundation

On 18 March 2017, 25 QI and QNET staff from our Hong Kong office participated in the Soap Cycling For Underprivileged Countries activity, which was organized by the Soap Cycling organization and Hands On Hong Kong.

Soap Cycling is a nonprofit organization based in Hong Kong that works with the hospitality industry to collect, sanitize and recycle slightly used soaps and other sanitation amenities. Soap Cycling is the first organization of this kind in Asia, and is operated largely through student volunteers from the University of Hong Kong.

Soap Cycling estimates that more than 2 million bars of soap are discarded from hotels in Hong Kong each year. Soap Cycling aims to send these life-saving items to be distributed to underprivileged families and schools in disadvantaged communities around the world, particularly Asia in hope of helping to improve sanitation and prevent diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea. It has been found that these diseases are the leading causes of death for children under the age of 5 and can easily be prevented by washing hands with soap.

The volunteers spent the day sorting clean and slightly stained soaps, scraping off dirt and stains before packing them for sanitation and moulding. The soaps are then sent off to the target recipients.

“By collecting soaps, Soap Cycling is helping to eliminate thousands of pounds of chemical waste from our landfills each month. Through this activity, we not only help children from poor Asian regions, we also help save our environment,” said Alfred Cheung, QI Group’s Senior Legal Counsel.

Jeannie Tan, Senior Network Success Executive at QNET feels that “these kind of activities help raise awareness of such an amazing effort to put these otherwise disposed of items to good use, especially for those who frequently go on business trips to be considerate when using soap when in hotels. It also gives us an opportunity to share Soap Cycling’s unique mission”.

Who knew you could recycle soap and other items you find in your hotel bathrooms?