ORLANDO, Fla. — According to the Clean the World Foundation, more than 2.3 billion people lack access to basic sanitation around the world.

What You Need To Know

  • Hotel rooms throw away a million bars of soap every single day
  • Clean the World collects used soap to be repurposed and made into new soap; it is cleaned first before being repurposed
  • Visitors can tour their soap factory and volunteer time and assist with soap making
  • Guests can visit their on-site museum and learn the history about soap

Many don’t have access to something as simple as a bar of soap.

However, Clean the World in Orlando is working hard to help clean up this problem by taking old soap and making it new again.

Shawn Seiple, CEO and founder of Clean the World, said so much soap is wasted each day.

“America goes through a lot of soap. Our hotel rooms throw away a million bars of soap every single day,” said Seiple.

Seiple saw the problem back in 2009 and started experimenting in an Orlando garage to figure out how to repurpose soap so it could be used again and not wasted.

Since then, he has helped build a nonprofit with a Global Hospitality Recycling Program, where more than 1.4 million hotels rooms are processed daily.

Clean the World has already diverted more than 25.8 million pounds of waste from landfills.

“In 15 years, we have distributed 82 million bars of soap to those in need in 127 countries. The death rate to children under the age of 5 dying of hygiene related illnesses has reduced by more than 60%,” he said.

All the used soap comes to their Orlando location, where it is cleaned, sterilized, and reshaped into new soap again.

What makes Clean the World unique is that anyone can visit their Central Florida factory and tour the facility along with volunteering to help sort and pack up soap that will be used around the world.

“These boxes can go to the Dominican Republic, to Uganda, to the Philippines, but they are going to someone in need locally or globally,” said Seiple.

There is also the Soap Story Museum on property that guests can tour and learn the history of soap and how it helped change the world.

“It’s not a coincidence that they are called soap operas. They were founded by the soap companies,” said Seiple.

There is no cost to visit the soap museum or factory.

Reservations must be done in advance, and you can do that by emailing Clean the World at info@cleantheworld.org.