Clean the World Partners Sands China; Establishes Presence in HK and Macau

Clean the World, one of the world’s largest recyclers of hotel amenities, has partnered with Sands China and established its first international presence in Hong Kong and Macau.

Clean the World is a social enterprise committed to protecting the environment and saving lives by collecting and recycling used hotel soaps to help fight the global spread of preventable diseases.

Sands China is a key sponsor for this vital environmental and lifesaving initiative, participating with over 9,000 guest rooms of its Cotai Strip Resorts and Sands Macao properties.

“Sands China is proud to be the lead sponsor of Clean the World for their sustainable environmental programmes, which align with our Sands ECO360° green initiative,” said Mark McWhinnie, Senior Vice President of Operations of The Venetian Macau Resort Hotel and Sands Cotai Central. “With the vast number of hotel rooms in Macau and Hong Kong, there is an enormous opportunity to put recycled soap to good use and contribute to greener tourism at the same time. Being the operator of almost one-third of hotel rooms in Macau, sustainable tourism initiatives are something we take very seriously. Furthermore, one of our company’s key initiatives is to serve the community through working with local charities and supporting disaster relief response efforts for major events, like earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and typhoons. It’s good to  know that Clean the World is committed to partnering with major relief organisations, as it has done successfully in the past.”

Sands China has an extensive track record of green initiatives across its five properties. It has installed water-saving shower heads and energy-saving LED lights; participated in Global Earth Hour twice a month during 2013 rather than once a year; installed recycling bins in its offices to recycle paper, plastic and metal; is working on implementing glass recycling; looking into recycling of food waste; implements various measures to encourage team members to save electricity, water, paper and food; and has a dedicated environmental issues department which works continually to decrease Sands China’s carbon footprint.

According to the World Health Organization, each day thousands of children around the world die from acute respiratory illness and diarrheal diseases that can be prevented by washing with bar soap. By joining hands with leading hotel groups, Clean the World also helps protect the environment by diverting waste from incinerators and landfills by repurposing the millions of bars of soap discarded daily.

“We are excited to have Sands China as our corporate partner in Asia to further enhance our presence in the region as a member of the community to support Hong Kong and Macau’s environmental and hygiene initiatives,” said Shawn Seipler, Co-founder and CEO at Clean the World. “Clean the World has diverted over 700 metric tons of waste and created over 12 million new sanitized soap bars delivered to communities, families, and children in 67 countries. With our new soap cleansing and recycling facility, we target to collect and recycle 100 metric tons of soap in our first year in the region. Partnering with Sands China, one of the leading integrated resort developers and operators in the world, is a significant  step towards our expansion in Asia, and we are already seeing other well-established hotel partners interested in joining our Global Hygiene Revolution.”

Clean the World has partnered with Las Vegas Sands since 2011 and has created partnerships with some of the biggest names in the hospitality industry including Mandarin Oriental, Starwood, Marriott, Disney, Caesars, Carlson, and InterContinental Hotels Group.

Shailesh Adhav is the Managing Director of Clean the World – Asia and says operations in the region are already underway.

“We are collecting soap from our hotel partners to begin fabrication of new bars with our customized sanitization and cleansing process,” Adhav said. “Soap provides essential health safety benefits as well as basic human dignity, and it is important for raw soap to go through our sanitization process to create brand new bars. Clean the World has been doing this successfully for over four years as the world’s largest soap recycler meeting the high standards of the hospitality industry and we are proud to be expanding this valuable programme into Asia.”