Recycled hotel soap is turned into 20 million soap bars for needy

Don’t fret about leaving that used bar of soap in the hotel room sink or using only half the bottle of hotel shampoo. A nonprofit group has been collecting the leftover soap, sanitizing it and distributing it to the poor.

Clean the World, the program that began in 2009 in a garage in Orlando, Fla., collects discarded soap from more than 2,000 hotels and resorts. Clean the World has distributed about 20 million bars of soap to poor people in 96 countries.

The group also produces hygiene kits that include soap, shampoo, washcloth, toothpaste, a toothbrush and a razor for the needy and victims of natural disasters in the U.S.

The program aims to prevent the spread of disease through proper hygiene.

Although many hotels have begun to install liquid soap and shampoo dispensers to reduce waste, Clean the World officials say the trend hasn’t hurt its soap collecting program.

“It’s still a really tiny percent of the industry,” said John Terry, a spokesman for Clean the World.

To read more about travel, tourism and the airline industry, follow me on Twitter at @hugomartin.