I’m honestly really glad to hear this. I always figured they just threw it away and it was such a massive waste.
Honestly, as long as it's been shown to be sanitary, I'm so for recycling. Imagine throwing out all that barely used soap? What a waste.
Maybe it's just the crappy hotels I've used, but the soaps are always so small, I need two whole bars to take a shower. I know I'm not in the best of shape, but I ain't that huge.
Yummy, glad to be using some rando's used soap. But on a more serious note as long as it's being done in a way that is sanitary and doesn't risk spreading any diseases then this is much better than producing all that waste.
It's distributed to poor countries interested in free soap. They don't reuse it within the hotel, and people that receive it know it's recycled.
I question if this is actually an efficient way of donating soap, it's quite an intensive process I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of those feel-good things that actual costs more than just making new soap.
Yeah, you could be right that it is just for the feel good press to make them look good. Look at clothes donations. It tanks local textile industries and they're sometimes stuck with piles upon piles of used clothes that don't even look nice. Maybe there's something similar happening here.
One of the people involved in getting this program going has commented on this thread. You should ask them about that. I'd be curious to know the answer.
Hey I actually helped create this program. And as info the soap is given to third party companies, plastic is recycled (if bottled soap / shampoo), then it is hygienically processed and donated to a variety of causes. Let me know if you have any questions, but it's not (for once) horrible capitalism something or reused in the hotels.
Thank you for being part of the solution! With so much waste out there, it's nice to learn that at least some measures like these are being taken.
I'm curious what your job is that this is a program you worked on. Also curious if you had any pushback from hotels or if they reacted positively to the idea from the start.
But now what can I spend all this anger on?
Your life
Obviously this reduces waste which is nice but I was curious, does the program actually save money or does the cost to recycle cost more than what is recovered?
This part is taken care of by 3rd party companies so I can only half answer that. It bring zero savings to the hotel other than a insignificant amount less garbage that is taken away.
Recycling like this is much better and easier because you have large quantities of the same types of plastic all together. This makes processing, sorting and recycling easier. The soap itself is easy to process
*deleted by creator * - I was responding to a different thread but had this window open and replied here by mistake. That's interesting though, thanks for following up.
Great, I was always a bit upset thinking of all of them going to waste.
the hair and stuff off
What..what other kind of stuff are we talking about 🫣
Little bits of shower oreos
you know that half-liquid stuff? that stuff.
people don't shove soap up their ass.... never happens... those little soaps aren't really large enough for it...
You wouldn't want to do that anyway. Stuff up the arse needs a flared base, or you'll end up with a hospital visit.
Ya never pooped a brick of soap before?
It'll shoot clean up there.
And clean the chute up there.
I mean... you're not wrong, really.
Whatever it is, I bet it's not going to waste either.
Here ya go. Mike Rowe has a good way of going through all of that “and stuff” convo. Dirty Jobs FTW https://youtu.be/_ndZ9PnqKw8
Thanks for triggering my germaphobia.
But then again, I'd probably be too afraid to travel.
Isn't soap supposed to kill all that stuff? Wouldn't germs die when in contact with it for too long?
💀
Surfactants effectively kill many varieties of microbes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7166552/
Well, TIL more than one thing!
That reply is wrong, surfactants effectively kill many varieties of microbes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7166552/
Soap emperor here: can confirm. But mostly I let my soapologists deal with the details.
Here is video about it, if you want to see the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qJV34pcOaw
Good video, just the one I was thinking of. During the pandemic my company sent employees boxes of sanitation kits to assemble and bag and then donate to homeless shelters. The kit included these remanufactured soap bars, along with unused random hotel lotion and shampoo, sample tubes of toothpaste, very cheap white toothbrushes, and moist towelettes.
I wish they'd just put the soap and shampoo in fixed dispenser units like in the hand soap in a public bathroom. No stupid little bottle of shampoo where there's more plastic than shampoo.
I've been in a few hotels this year and every one of them has done this. They put them in locked in containers that you can't really contaminate.
Yeah. This is a nice idea to deal with the problem, but why are they perpetuating the problem? Why continue to use bar soaps that constantly need to be collected? Do customers throw a fit if they have liquid soap?
Reduce, reuse, recycle!
While I am all in for recycling, this was something I didn't want to know.
This is why I always take the hotel soap with me
Ah finally, sustainability!
Nah, probably just capitalism.
Win-win then?
Today I Learned
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.