Hotel soaps, a second life
In 2017, Pauline Grumel set up an ambitious project: to create an association that gives a second life to hotel soaps. One year later, Unisoap has already collected and recycled about 800 kg of soaps. More than 130 hotels have become partners of this association.
A colossal mess
There are approximately 949 million soaps thrown away per year in the world, including no less than 51 million by hotels in France. Even if soap is generally biodegradable given its ingredients, it is still a huge loss not to recycle it.
Add to this a more disturbing fact: there are more than 2.2 million children who die each year because of a lack of hygiene in disadvantaged countries, and 3 million do not have access to basic hygiene products in France!
A triple vision
With this project, Pauline Grumel aims to act on three levels. First of all, on an ecological level, the hotel soaps are recycled instead of being thrown away. Secondly, on a social level, the association recruits mainly disabled young people aged between 18 and 25 whose job is to clean the used soaps before the recycling stage. Finally, it is primarily on a humanitarian level that Pauline Grumel has embarked on this adventure: these recycled soaps would give access to hygiene to the most disadvantaged populations in France but also abroad. Indeed, the ambition is for these products of first necessity to be distributed beyond France, anywhere in the world.
The final product
This initiative attracts a lot of hotels who partner with and donate the used soaps to Unisoap. These used soaps are first stored and then transferred by Unisoap to a recycling center in Lyon. Once the whole process is finalized, the new soaps are distributed to schools, hospitals, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). These soaps are also made available to associations helping the poorest people, where often hygiene products may not be the highest priority. That is why easy access to these recycled soaps is very important.
Sources: Unisoap; TF1; Efficycle; 20 Minutes
Image Credits: Kaboompics
Global Goodness also suggests:
